Ring security cameras are displayed on a shelf at a Target store on June 01, 2023 in Novato, California.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images
Ring is terminating its partnership with police tech provider Flock Safety, the Amazon-owned company announced Thursday.
The partnership between Flock and Ring came under scrutiny after the Amazon doorbell company ran an ad during the Super Bowl that touted a “Search Party” feature that uses artificial intelligence to help locate lost pets. When a user initiates the feature, it activates a network of participating Ring cameras, which scan footage for images resembling the missing dog. The Electronic Frontier Foundation called the feature a “surveillance nightmare.”
Flock, meanwhile, operates a network of automated license plate readers, and sells access to that software to customers that include law enforcement agencies.
Ring’s decision to cancel its partnership with Flock comes as tech companies face growing pressure to reexamine their work with federal agencies including Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Earlier this week, Salesforce employees pressed CEO Marc Benioff to cancel “ICE opportunities,” CNBC reported. More than 900 Google employees also asked their company to divest itself from ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Privacy and civil liberties advocates urged Ring to drop its partnership with Flock. A protest calling on the e-commerce company to cut its ties with Flock, ICE and CBP is scheduled for Friday, outside of Amazon’s Seattle headquarters.
“Following a comprehensive review, we determined the planned Flock Safety integration would require significantly more time and resources than anticipated,” Ring wrote in a blog post. “As a result, we have made the joint decision to cancel the planned integration.”
Flock representatives didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Amazon acquired Ring for $839 million in 2018. The home security company is primarily known for its connected doorbell devices, which can record footage and alert users to activity around their home or business via an app.
Ring has long sparked controversy about privacy due to its partnerships with police. In recent years, the company had adopted a softer image, positioning its devices as a tool to capture porch pirates and family friendly hijinks. After founder Jamie Siminoff returned as CEO last year, the company has reembraced its original mission of fighting crime.
The Amazon company announced its partnership with Flock last October, giving owners of its video doorbells the option to share footage with law enforcement agencies that use the startup’s software to assist with their “evidence collection and investigative work.”
Flock’s systems have been adopted by thousands of communities and law enforcement agencies across the country, and both ICE and CBP have reportedly accessed Flock’s data as part of President Donald Trump‘s immigration crackdown. Flock has denied that it shares data with ICE or any “sub-agency” of the Department of Homeland Security.
Ring spokesperson Emma Daniels said in a statement that the Flock partnership was never active, and the companies never announced a date for it to go live.
“No videos were ever shared between these services,” Daniels said.
In response to the scrutiny of its Search Party tool, Daniels said Ring built the feature “with strong privacy protections from the start.” Ring users can decide on a case-by-case basis whether they want to share videos with a pet owner who initiates a Search Party, she said.
The news was earlier reported by The Verge.
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