What you need to know:
- Amazon revealed that it released 11 law enforcement clips this year without user consent.
- Amazon has not announced which clips have been released.
- US Senator Edward Markey was investigating the Amazon ring and its connection to law enforcement agencies.
shocking report from News letters It raises some serious concerns about Ring hardware.
Amazon released video footage from Ring doorbell cameras to law enforcement without a court order or user consent.
Only 11 separate videos were sent to the police this year, though they did not specify which videos were shared.
this is Painful discovery It came in a message from Amazon announced by US Senator Edward Markey. This was in response to a separate letter he sent to the company, a Democrat from Massachusetts, questioning Ring’s surveillance practices and close relationship with law enforcement.
Brian Hausmann, Amazon’s vice president of public policy, attempts to justify the release of the footage in the letter, writing that “Ring has determined in good faith that there is an imminent risk of death or serious bodily injury to a person requiring disclosure of the information without delay.”
In response, Senator Markle says the partnerships Ring has forged with law enforcement are alarming and risky. It highlights how Amazon’s partnerships with law enforcement have increased nearly 500% since 2019.
“We cannot accept this as an imperative in our country. The increasing reliance of law enforcement on private surveillance is leading to a crisis in accountability, and I am particularly concerned that biometric surveillance could become central to the growing network of surveillance systems that Amazon and other powerful technology companies are responsible for. “.
Markey also identifies other privacy concerns, such as Amazon’s refusal to commit to end-to-end encryption as a default storage option on Ring devices and a failure to clarify audio recording distance.
Amazon was not immediately available for comment.
Besides this massive breach of privacy, Ring devices have caused some major headaches over the years since its launch. The system has been hacked many times before and has caused some potentially dangerous situations.
In 2019, Ring’s security camera appeared in a Mississippi The child’s bedroom was hacked, and the intruder ordered an eight-year-old to destroy his room. In Georgia, another Ring security camera has been hacked into the couple’s bedroom, and the intruder can be heard shouting obscenities at the sleeping couple.
Ring devices are sold by Amazon, and are intended for user safety, allowing them to monitor what’s going on from the built-in camera. The captured video can be streamed directly to a device or can be recorded and stored in a cloud monitored by Amazon.
You can check out our security review on Ring devices to determine if Ring is right for you.