Ring Doorbell is spying for the police now...

[Roland99]

Link to tweet

Marc Fisher
✔
@mffisher
Post Exclusive: A doorbell-camera company owned by Amazon founder and Post owner Jeff Bezos has secretly cut deals with 400 police departments to feed video from people's front doors to cops who request it, creating "a wholly new surveillance network." https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/08/28/doorbell-camera-firm-ring-has-partnered-with-police-forces-extending-surveillance-reach/

From the WaPo:

The doorbell-camera company Ring has quietly forged video-sharing partnerships with more than 400 police forces across the United States, granting them access to homeowners’ camera footage and a powerful role in what the company calls America’s “new neighborhood watch.”
The partnerships let police automatically request the video recorded by homeowners’ cameras within a specific time and area, helping officers see footage from the company’s millions of Internet-connected cameras installed nationwide, the company said. Officers don’t receive ongoing or live-video access, and homeowners can decline the requests, which Ring sends via email thanking them for “making your neighborhood a safer place.”
The number of police deals, which has not previously been reported, will likely fuel broader questions about privacy, surveillance and the expanding reach of tech giants and local police. The rapid growth of the program, which launched last spring, surprised some civil-liberties advocates, who believed fewer than 300 agencies had signed on.

[Watchfoxheadexplodes]

1. If someone broke into my house

I would give video to police anyway

[cbdo2007]

2. You have to opt-in to do this, and if they request video from you you don't have to give it to them.

Says all that in the article.

We just got one and got asked about this...we opted out of the service that lets them see it any time, yet would probably give video to them if asked. It's not a big deal and will definitely help stop crime.

[Watchfoxheadexplodes]

3. Mine sees my sidewalk and carport

Back one sees yard and woodline

If they want to monitor my property more power to them.

[ecstatic]

9. They should pay you for that access

Not the other way around!

[cbdo2007]

10. Haha, exactly. I think people assume then that the cops are going to be watching them leaving and

getting their paper and stuff. The cops don't care about that, nor do they have people available that have time to do this.

BUT if there is a kid taken in your neighborhood, and maybe they can identify the car by using your camera, I don't see anything wrong with that.

Besides, mine is motion activated and says you would have to be within like 100 ft for it to activate and the road is like 150 feet so it may not even activate and record anything.

[DetlefK]

20. Your naivete is as colossal as it is unfunny.

Alexa shares whatever you say with Amazon, whether you want to or not. Every single thing Alexa hears goes to Amazon.

Everything.

Lucky for us, Amazon would never use those records for profit...

https://gizmodo.com/the-terrible-truth-about-alexa-1834075404

This week, I read through a history of everything I’ve said to Alexa, and it felt a little bit like reading an old diary. Until I remembered that the things I’ve told Alexa in private are stored on an Amazon server and have possibly been read by an Amazon employee. This is all to make Alexa better, the company keeps saying. However, to many people, it’s not immediately obvious how humans interacting with your seemingly private voice commands is anything other than surveillance. Alexa, these people say, is a spy hiding in a wiretapping device.

Oopsie.




Facebook sold private information of Facebook-users to dozens of companies like Cambridge Analytica. (Facebook cut these deals with so many companies, Facebook actually FUCKING lost track what info they were selling to whom.) What makes you think that Amazon is any better?

[CrispyQ]

4. Privacy is dead. -nt

[Sapient Donkey]

14. Does the fact that you would have to approve them to access it still take away privacy?

Assuming they are doing what they are saying, and not just handing it out without approval, is this any different than the police asking to see any other security camera footage?

[cwydro]

5. They say "secretly," but homeowners are allowed to opt out.

Odd.

Doorbell cameras helped convict that cretin Chris Watt, who killed his wife and kids.

[Lars39]

6. Wait until entire apartment complexes have them.

Our neighbor had one mounted by *my* door. I hated it. She could see every one who came to all 4 door, who went up the stairs. She could listen to every conversation in the breeze way. Intrusive as fuck. I was so glad when she moved.

[Johnny2X2X]

7. I think people are crazy for hooking these up.

These are easily hackable and the police will misuse what they find on them. Helping to create a perpetual and constant surveillance state when we have a law enforcement community that is out of control and corrupt can only lead to very bad things.

Scary times we live in where so many Americans are just fine with the government being able to watch their every move.

You want to see how this is misused? Look at China right now as they're instituting facial recognition to monitor the "good/bad" behavior of their citizens and rewarding/punishing them accordingly. Silicon valley is already working on this type of monitoring too.

People learned nothing from Facebook, they got you to hand over your entire lives to them willingly, and now they're asking for more. Opt out, opt in, doesn't matter if your neighbor's camera is pointed at your house.

[ecstatic]

8. These cameras should be free if that's the case.

Thanks for sharing!

[Timewas]

11. Giant leap for police and amazon

And one more small step into 1984

[Iggo]

12. Who didn't see that one coming?

[LiberalFighter]

13. If they can request a specific time and area...

wouldn't that mean the video is in the cloud?

As for permission, the police should be going to the homeowner directly and not to Ring Doorbell.

[onenote]

15. They do go to the homeowner for permission

[LiberalFighter]

16. I thought Ring Bell sends an email requesting authorization.

[LiberalFighter]

17. Also, if it is in the cloud

it would make easier for someone including LEO's to hack into it.

[Baitball Blogger]

18. Blink might be screwing around with that.

They automatically downloaded a Ring app. What's app with that?

[TeamPooka]

19. Big Brother sees you.

[MineralMan]

21. So, isn't security the reason to install one of those things?

So, there's some UPS or Amazon thief in the neighborhood, something that is very, very common. Why wouldn't you want the cops to be able to access doorbell cameras to catch the thief, even if it wasn't your house where a package got stolen?

If you're doing something yourself that's illegal, like selling dope from your front door, I'd guess you wouldn't install a doorbell cam.

The cops don't have time to watch whatever you're doing or who visits you. They simply don't. They don't care, either.

Now, do I have a doorbell camera? Nope. I don't see a need for one.