Amazon has made an agreement with hundreds of law enforcement agencies to allow footage obtained through their home surveillance Ring doorbells to be stored and shared indefinitely with police, with or without legal cause.
More than 600 police departments across the country are in an agreement with Ring to collect up to 12 hours of surveillance footage obtained through the doorbell cameras with the permission of the homeowners. Amazon and law enforcement said they are hopeful that access to the footage will help police track down trespassers, burglars, and package thieves, among other lawbreakers.
Some have raised concerns that the unfettered footage obtained by police could result in a violation of privacy rights and perhaps even lead to racial profiling of criminals. “Connected doorbells are well on their way to becoming a mainstay of American households, and the lack of privacy and civil rights protections for innocent residents is nothing short of chilling,” said Democratic Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey said in September.
“If you’re an adult walking your dog or a child playing on the sidewalk, you shouldn’t have to worry that Ring’s products are amassing footage of you and that law enforcement may hold that footage indefinitely or share that footage with any third parties,” Markey also said.
Ring rebutted the claims, stating that their terms of service mandate homeowners install the doorbells in a manner that limits the scope of their surveillance to their front door. However, they said they do not review user’s footage to confirm that all Ring users are in compliance with that policy. The doorbell company, which was obtained by Amazon for $800 million last year, further claimed that they did not “knowingly collect personal information online from children under the age of 13.”
Following a question by Markey about how Ring intended to prevent children from being recorded by their devices, the company said they would leave that responsibility to the users. “Similar to any security camera, Ring has no way to know or verify that a child has come within range of a device,” the company said.
Amazon reiterated that homeowners had the right to refuse to share Ring footage with law enforcement. “Users must expressly choose to assist police, the same way they would traditionally answer the door or respond to a public request for tips,” they said.
