Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) on Tuesday released the results of an investigation his office recently launched into video doorbell company Ring that found privacy and civil rights protections for video collected by the company lacking.
Sen. Markey, a member of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, launched the investigation into Ring, which is owned by online retail giant Amazon, in September. Markey found that Ring, which has thus far announced video sharing partnerships with more than 400 police departments across the country, uses targeted language to encourage users to grant police access to doorbell video footage, proactively courts law enforcement partners, and urges police to take steps that will increase rates of video sharing.
Other findings from the investigation include:
- Ring has no security requirements for the law enforcement offices that get access to users’ footage
- Ring has no restrictions on law enforcement sharing users’ footage with third parties
- Ring has no policies that prohibit law enforcement from keeping shared video footage forever
- Ring has no evidentiary standard for law enforcement to request Ring footage from users
- Ring refuses to commit to not selling users’ biometric data
- Ring has no oversight/compliance mechanisms in place to ensure that users don’t collect footage from beyond their property
- Ring has no oversight/compliance mechanisms in place to ensure that users don’t collect footage of children
- Ring has no compliance mechanisms in place to prohibit law enforcement from requesting and obtaining footage that does not comply with Ring’s Terms of Service
“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,” Sen. Markey said in a statement. “Amazon Ring’s policies are an open door for privacy and civil liberty violations. 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. Amazon’s Ring is marketed to help keep families safe, but privacy rights are in real danger as a result of company policies. Amazon is not doing enough to ensure that its products and practices do not run afoul of our civil liberties.”
In a letter responding to the senator’s concerns earlier this month, Brian Huseman, Vice President of Public Policy for Amazon, said that protecting the security and privacy of customer’s video recordings is “paramount” to the company.
“Home security cameras have existed for decades, and local police have long engaged in the practice of asking residents to voluntarily provide information, including any video recordings, to help the police investigate, solve, and prevent crimes,” Huseman wrote. “The Ring Neighbors Portal provides an added layer of privacy to traditional investigative assistance encounters because police are not made aware of who was asked to help with an investigation or if the person chose not to assist. Ring does not own or otherwise control users’ videos, and we intentionally designed the Neighbors Portal to ensure that users get to decide whether to voluntarily provide their videos to the police. Neighbors Portal also benefits communities by allowing local police to more efficiently achieve their public safety goals. We routinely evaluate our communications to users to ensure they understand they are in complete control of their video recordings.”
