Amazon Doorbell Company ‘Ring’ Gives Footage to Police Without User Consent - US Lawmaker

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The technology and commerce company Amazon has given footage from video doorbells made by their subsidiary Ring to law enforcement without the consent of users almost a dozen times so far this year, US Senator Edward Markey said in a statement on Wednesday, citing a letter received in response to his probe of Ring.

“In response to Senator Markey’s June letter, Ring reported a more than five-fold increase in law enforcement partnerships on its platform since November 2019. Ring further revealed that Ring has provided law enforcement with user footage through a process that does not require user’s consent - under a so-called ‘emergency circumstance exception’ - 11 times so far this year,” the statement said.

Ring partners with 2,161 law enforcement agencies through its Neighbors Public Safety Service, which police can use to request Ring footage from users, according to the company’s letter in response to Markey.

In each of the 11 cases where an emergency request from law enforcement for footage was granted, Ring made a “good-faith determination” that there was an imminent danger of death or serious injury to a person requiring undelayed information sharing, the statement said.

In response to privacy concerns raised by Markey, Ring refused to commit to never incorporating voice recognition technology in its products, eliminating the devices’ default setting to automatically record audio, and making end-to-end encryption the default storage option for consumers, the statement added.