“Any footage a Ring customer chooses to submit will be securely packaged by Flock and shared directly with the requesting local public safety agency through the FlockOS or Flock Nova platform,” the announcement reads.
Flock said its local law enforcement users will gain access to Ring Community Requests in “the coming months.”
Outside its software platforms, Flock is known for license plate recognition cameras. Flock customers can also search footage from Flock cameras using descriptors to find people, such as “man in blue shirt and cowboy hat.” Besides law enforcement agencies, Flock says 6,000 communities and 1,000 businesses use their products.
“I now believe that abuses of your product are not only likely but inevitable and that Flock is unable and uninterested in preventing them,” Wyden wrote.
Matthew Guariglia, senior policy analyst at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), told Ars via email that Flock is a “mass surveillance tool” that “has increasingly been used to spy on both immigrants and people exercising their First Amendment-protected rights.”
An Amazon spokesperson told Ars Technica that only local public safety agencies will be able to make Community Requests via Flock software, and that requests will also show the name of the agency making the request.
Flock’s rep added that all activity within FlockOS and Flock Nova is “permanently recorded in a comprehensive CJIS-compliant audit trail for unalterable custody tracking,” referring to a set of standards created by the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services division.
But there’s still concern that federal agencies will end up accessing Ring footage through Flock. Guariglia told Ars:
While announcing Ring’s deals with Flock and Axon, Ring founder and CEO Jamie Siminoff claimed that the partnerships would help Ring cameras keep neighborhoods safe. But there’s doubt as to whether people buy Ring cameras to protect their neighborhood.
“Ring’s new partnership with Flock shows that the company is more interested in contributing to mounting authoritarianism than servicing the specific needs of their customers,” Guariglia told Ars.
Amazon, for its part, has mostly pushed the burden of ensuring responsible facial recognition use to its customers. Schroeder shared concern with the Post that Ring’s facial recognition data could end up being shared with law enforcement.
“Inviting big brother into the system. Screw that,” a user on the Ring subreddit said this week.
Another Reddit user said: “And… I’m gone. Nope, NO WAY IN HELL. Goodbye, Ring. I’ll be switching to a UniFi[-brand] system with 100 percent local storage. You don’t get my money any more. This is some 1984 BS …”
“It will be turned on for free for every customer, and I think all of them will use it,” Langely told CNBC.
Scharon Harding Senior Technology Reporter
Scharon Harding Senior Technology Reporter
Even without formal partnerships with federal authorities, data from these surveillance companies flow to agencies like ICE through local law enforcement. Local and state police have run more than 4,000 Flock searches on behalf of federal authorities or with a potential immigration focus, reporting has found. Additionally, just this month, it became clear that Texas police searched 83,000 Flock cameras in an attempt to prosecute a woman for her abortion and then tried to cover it up.
And it appears that Amazon and Flock would both like Ring customers to opt in when possible.
Scharon Harding Senior Technology Reporter Scharon Harding Senior Technology Reporter
Scharon Harding Senior Technology Reporter Scharon Harding Senior Technology Reporter
Scharon Harding Senior Technology Reporter
Scharon Harding Senior Technology Reporter
“I now believe that abuses of your product are not only likely but inevitable and that Flock is unable and uninterested in preventing them,” Wyden wrote. In August, Jay Stanley, senior policy analyst for the ACLU Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, wrote that “Flock is building a dangerous, nationwide mass-surveillance infrastructure.” Stanley pointed to ICE using Flock’s network of cameras, as well as Flock’s efforts to build a people lookup tool with data brokers. Matthew Guariglia, senior policy analyst at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), told Ars via email that Flock is a “mass surveillance tool” that “has increasingly been used to spy on both immigrants and people exercising their First Amendment-protected rights.” Flock has earned this reputation among privacy advocates through its own cameras, not Ring’s. An Amazon spokesperson told Ars Technica that only local public safety agencies will be able to make Community Requests via Flock software, and that requests will also show the name of the agency making the request. A Flock spokesperson told Ars: Flock does not currently have any contracts with any division of [the US Department of Homeland Security], including ICE. The Ring Community Requests process through Flock is only available for local public safety agencies for specific, active investigations. All requests are time and geographically-bound. Ring users can choose to share relevant footage or ignore the request. Flock’s rep added that all activity within FlockOS and Flock Nova is “permanently recorded in a comprehensive CJIS-compliant audit trail for unalterable custody tracking,” referring to a set of standards created by the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services division.
Amazon, for its part, has mostly pushed the burden of ensuring responsible facial recognition use to its customers. Schroeder shared concern with the Post that Ring’s facial recognition data could end up being shared with law enforcement. Some people who are perturbed about Ring deepening its ties with law enforcement have complained online. “Inviting big brother into the system. Screw that,” a user on the Ring subreddit said this week. Another Reddit user said: “And… I’m gone. Nope, NO WAY IN HELL. Goodbye, Ring. I’ll be switching to a UniFi[-brand] system with 100 percent local storage. You don’t get my money any more. This is some 1984 BS …” Privacy concerns are also exacerbated by Ring’s past, as the company has previously failed to meet users’ privacy expectations. In 2023, Ring agreed to pay $5.8 million to settle claims that employees illegally spied on Ring customers. Amazon and Flock say their collaboration will only involve voluntary customers and local enforcement agencies. But there’s still reason to be concerned about the implications of people sending doorbell and personal camera footage to law enforcement via platforms that are reportedly widely used by federal agencies for deportation purposes. Combined with the privacy issues that Ring has already faced for years, it’s not hard to see why some feel that Amazon scaling up Ring’s association with any type of law enforcement is unacceptable. And it appears that Amazon and Flock would both like Ring customers to opt in when possible. “It will be turned on for free for every customer, and I think all of them will use it,” Langely told CNBC.
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