Amazon’s Ring Now Reportedly Partners With More Than 2,000 US Police and Fire Departments
MrPlow writes:
Submitted via IRC for Fnord666
All but two US states - Montana and Wyoming- now have police or fire departments participating in Amazon's Ring network, which lets law enforcement ask users for footage from their Ring security cameras to assist with investigations, the Financial Times reported[.] Figures from Ring show more than 1,189 departments joined the program in 2020 for a total of 2,014. That's up sharply from 703 departments in 2019 and just 40 in 2018.
Gizmodo adds:
[The Financial Times] reported that in 2020, the departments collectively requested videos related to more than 22,335 incidents.
Police don't need a warrant to request the videos, and owners can decline to provide their Ring's footage. Nonetheless, the scenario changes when subpoenas, court orders, and search warrants are involved, per the Times, because Amazon can be forced to comply with these legal requests and provide footage and "identifying data" even if the owner of the doorbell has denied access.
[...] While Ring has maintained that its program gives law enforcement more resources to solve crimes, critics accuse it of building a "for-profit private surveillance network." Meanwhile, legal experts and privacy advocates worry that the network and the program could threaten civil liberties and turn Ring users into police informants. It could also make innocent people undergo unnecessary surveillance.
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