Dylan Cauchon
In case anyone needed reminding that using Amazon hardware is tantamount to bugging your own home, it’s now emerged that the web giant has been handing over Ring doorbell videos to police without owners’ consent. Happy Prime Day!
Jeff Bezos’ business has given Americans’ doorstep footage to law enforcement at least 11 times so far this year. The figure emerged in a letter Amazon sent to Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) at the beginning of July after he’d asked Amazon about privacy violations in June, Politico reports.
Ring, which was bought by Amazon in 2018, has previously insisted that police can’t look at its doorbell recordings unless owners share them publicly or choose to directly share them with law enforcement, except when police issue subpoenas or in the case of emergencies where someone’s physical safety could be in immediate danger. Although Ring’s company policy does say it can share a user’s data without their consent, the letter to Markey is the first time Ring has confirmed that it has done so.