[ad_1]
All but two US states – Montana and Wyoming – now have police or fire departments that participate in Amazon’s Ring Network, which allows law enforcement to ask users for images from their cameras. Ring Security to assist them with their investigations. Financial Times reported, Ring figures show that more than 1,189 departments joined the program in 2020 for a total of 2014. This is up sharply compared to 703 departments in 2019 and only 40 in 2018.
The FT reports that the platform’s local law enforcement authorities requested Ring videos for a total of more than 22,335 incidents in 2020. Ring’s disclosure data also shows law enforcement has made some 1,900 requests – such as subpoenas, search warrants, and court orders — for images or data from Ring cameras, even after the device owner has refused the request. Amazon complied with these requests 57% of the time, according to its figures, up from 68% in 2019.
Privacy advocates have expressed concerns about how Ring data is used and made available to law enforcement. The Ring’s Neighbors app, which allows Ring users to share videos with other people nearby, has been criticized for containing racist comments and reports. And a report of NBC News Back in February, Ring’s footage weren’t very helpful in solving crimes. When useful, Ring’s footage was primarily used for low-level non-violent property crimes (like stealing a Nintendo Switch).
Ring began adding end-to-end encryption support to its cameras earlier this month.
[ad_2]
Source link