Mon Jan 1, 0001

Ring / Neighbors App as Distributed Surveillance Network

Scale

Amazon acquired Ring in 2018 for ~$1 billion. By 2023: estimated 20+ million devices in US. Neighbors app (launched 2018): 10+ million Android downloads. In some neighborhoods, camera density exceeds one per 5-10 homes.

Police Partnerships

Before January 2023

2,000+ law enforcement agency partnerships by 2022. Police had access to Request for Assistance (RFA) portal: could ask Ring users within defined geographic area and time window to voluntarily share footage WITHOUT warrant.

January 2023 Policy Change

Ring ended RFA tool. Police must now obtain warrant, court order, or direct user consent. Applied retroactively to all departments. Partnerships continue for community engagement without footage-request mechanism.

Controversies

Warrantless Emergency Disclosures

Amazon admitted (July 2022, response to Sen. Markey inquiry): provided Ring footage to law enforcement 11 times in 2022 without user consent or warrant, citing “emergency” circumstances.

Senator Markey Investigation (2019-2022)

Found Ring had no policies limiting how long police could retain shared footage, no oversight on racial bias, did not notify users how often police requested data.

Racial Profiling

Researchers (Fight for the Future, academic studies): Neighbors app posts disproportionately flagged Black and brown individuals as “suspicious.”

Employee Access (2019)

The Intercept and others: Ring employees in Ukraine and US had access to customer video feeds. Amazon acknowledged issue, stated access since restricted.

Network Effect

Ring cameras in aggregate create overlapping fields of view. Person walking through neighborhood may appear on dozens of cameras sequentially.

Amazon Sidewalk (launched 2021)

Uses Ring devices, Echo speakers, other Amazon hardware as low-bandwidth mesh network nodes. Automatically shares slice of users’ internet bandwidth with nearby devices. Enabled by default (opt-out required). Criticized by EFF.

Sources

  • EFF Surveillance Technology Oversight Project
  • Sen. Markey press releases (July 2022)
  • Amazon congressional responses
  • The Intercept (January 2019)
  • Ring official blog (January 2023 policy change)