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Ring Rings Off Partnership with Flock Safety After Super Bowl Surveillance Stir
Amazon’s Ring unit has severed ties with security tech company Flock Safety, a move that follows public outcry over a Super Bowl commercial for Ring’s smart doorbell that ignited fears of widespread surveillance.
The ad, designed to showcase Ring’s “Search Party” service, depicted a family enlisting their neighborhood’s smart doorbells to locate a lost dog. The internet-connected devices, equipped with AI, were shown scanning for and identifying the missing pet. While the Super Bowl spot highlighted “Search Party,” the actual partnership with Flock Safety centered on giving Ring owners the option to share video footage with law enforcement through Ring’s “Community Requests” service.
“Surveillance Nightmare” Fears Emerge
Despite the ad’s heartwarming premise, critics quickly voiced concerns about the potential for misuse. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a digital civil liberties advocate, sharply criticized the initiative, stating that “no one… will be safer in Ring’s surveillance nightmare.” In a February 10 blog post, the EFF warned of a future where “biometric identification could be unleashed from consumer devices to identify, track and locate anything – human, pet, and otherwise.”
Ring, in a statement released Thursday, attributed the end of the partnership to the integration of Flock’s technology requiring “significantly more time and resources than anticipated,” notably omitting any mention of the Super Bowl commercial or the subsequent backlash. Amazon clarified that the integration was never completed, and “no videos were ever shared between these services.”
Flock Safety founder Jamie Siminoff confirmed that his company never received videos from Ring customers, emphasizing Flock’s commitment to privacy. “The backlash has been a little bit around this concept of, ‘Is this surveillance?'”
Siminoff told CBS News. “It’s actually not.
It’s allowing your camera to be an intelligent assistant for you and then allowing you to be a great neighbor.” He further asserted that both privacy and law enforcement needs can be met, driven by customer demand to assist.
However, Beryl Lipton, a senior investigative researcher at the EFF, countered, “There is still a strong, reasonable expectation of privacy that people have a sense of, even if it is not strongly protected by the legal system at the moment.”
Smart Doorbells Under Scrutiny
The Ring controversy comes as smart doorbells are increasingly in the spotlight. In a separate incident, investigators recently recovered “residual data” from a Google Nest camera outside the Arizona home of Nancy Guthrie, mother of “Today” co-host Savannah Guthrie, despite the doorbell being disconnected and lacking an active subscription. This raised questions about data retention and privacy implications.
Ring maintains that its “Community Requests” feature remains a core part of its mission, stressing its optional and voluntary nature. The company cited a successful instance during the December Brown University shooting, where the Providence Police Department utilized the service to request video footage. Ring reported that seven neighbors responded within hours, sharing 168 videos that helped identify a key witness and ultimately led police to the suspect’s vehicle, solving the case.