All but two U.S. states – Montana and Wyoming – now have police or fire departments participating in Amazon’s Ring network, allowing law enforcement officials to ask users for footage from their Ring security cameras to aid in the investigation, the Financial times Reported, figures from Ring show that more than 1,189 departments joined the program in 2020, for a total of 2,014. That has risen sharply from 703 departments in 2019 and only 40 in 2018.
The FT reports that local law enforcement departments on the platform have requested Ring videos for a total of more than 22,335 incidents in 2020. Ring’s disclosure records also show that police have filed about 1,900 requests, such as subpoenas, warrants and warrants. for footage or data from Ring cameras, even after the device owner declines the request. Amazon responded to such requests 57 percent of the time, the figures show, up from 68 percent in 2019.
Privacy advocates have raised concerns about how Ring data is used by and made available to law enforcement officials. Ring’s Neighbors app, which allows Ring users to share videos with others nearby, has been criticized for containing racist comments and reports. And a report of it NBC News Last February, we found that Ring footage was not that helpful in solving crimes. When useful, the Ring footage was mainly used for low-level, non-violent property crimes (such as the theft of a Nintendo Switch).
Ring began adding end-to-end encryption support to its cameras earlier this month.