Ring Cancels Its Partnership With Flock Safety After Surveillance Backlash
5 41Following intense backlash to its partnership with Flock Safety, a surveillance technology company that works with law enforcement agencies, Ring has announced it is canceling the integration. From a report: In a statement published on Ring's blog and provided to The Verge ahead of publication, the company said: "Following a comprehensive review, we determined the planned Flock Safety integration would require significantly more time and resources than anticipated. We therefore made the joint decision to cancel the integration and continue with our current partners ... The integration never launched, so no Ring customer videos were ever sent to Flock Safety."
[...] Over the last few weeks, the company has faced significant public anger over its connection to Flock, with Ring users being encouraged to smash their cameras, and some announcing on social media that they are throwing away their Ring devices. The Flock partnership was announced last October, but following recent unrest across the country related to ICE activities, public pressure against the Amazon-owned Ring's involvement with the company started to mount. Flock has reportedly allowed ICE and other federal agencies to access its network of surveillance cameras, and influencers across social media have been claiming that Ring is providing a direct link to ICE.
5 comments
Re:Corporate Speak (Score: 5, Informative)
by geekmux ( 1040042 ) on Friday February 13, 2026 @04:33AM (#65986322)
Ring said: "[...] we determined the planned Flock Safety integration would require significantly more time and resources than anticipated."
Translation: "We're gonna lose a ton of customers and then get our butts sued off by the ones that are left."
Reality: "Society is just a tad too concerned about privacy. That generation is dying off, so we'll try this shit again in 6 months. And then again in 6 months. And again. Soon, an ignorant society will see it our way."
It's not just that Flock works with police / ICE (Score: 5, Insightful)
by 93 Escort Wagon ( 326346 ) on Friday February 13, 2026 @04:47AM (#65986328)
The bigger issue is, it's become pretty obvious Flock gives these entities access to their cameras and images regardless of the existence of a warrant - and without getting permission from (or even notifying) the Flock customer who's paying for the camera.
Re:Smash their Ring cameras? (Score: 5, Insightful)
by PsychoSlashDot ( 207849 ) on Friday February 13, 2026 @06:50AM (#65986378)
Earlier the previous evening, my Ring camera managed to capture the neighbor's teenager backing into my parked work van. Thanks to the camera, I've got timestamped footage footage of both the before and after. Now, you might be thinking to yourself "Surely they owned up to their mistake and you don't need surveillance footage?" Nope, the parent/guardian was extremely belligerent about the whole thing, with a main character attitude like their kid was just playing GTA and hitting a NPC's parked car is no big deal.
So no, I won't be smashing my Ring camera. We need these things because some people no longer do the right thing even when you've got them on video. I used to wonder why almost everyone in Russia seemed to have a dashcam - now I completely understand why.
There is nothing wrong with this use-case, and that's exactly the kind of scenario they're marketed for. For you to protect you.
Now, take another scenario into consideration. A string of B&Es has been happening in the area. Your kid goes out with some buddies and comes home at a time near when a neighbor gets broken into. LEOs pull footage and the only evidence they can find of anyone in the area is your kid. So they start scrutinizing them. And it goes South. These things absolutely do happen. Law-enforcement will focus on what evidence they do have over evidence they don't have. You should have the option to turn over any footage when someone knocks on your door, asking. Not because some default checkbox sends your footage to be scraped at-will.
Should be illegal... (Score: 5, Insightful)
by bradley13 ( 1118935 ) on Friday February 13, 2026 @07:09AM (#65986382)
Ring cameras in the US are apparently usually mounted so that they film your entryway, behind that the public sidewalk and street, and across from that your neighbor's house. To me - in Europe - that seems insane. Here, it is generally illegal to film public areas, because people have a right to move through the world without being tracked. And it is hugely illegal to film other people's property, because - well, that ought to be obvious - it's their property and not yours.
And yet here we have a business that not only lets you record all of that, but actively hands it out to anyone who wants it, for any reason whatsoever.
I have nothing against cameras filming what's happening on your own property, but Ring has normalized surveilling your neighbors.
Re:Should be illegal... (Score: 5, Interesting)
by SlashbotAgent ( 6477336 ) on Friday February 13, 2026 @08:05AM (#65986416)
> Here, it is generally illegal to film public areas, because people have a right to move through the world without being tracked.
Where exactly is "here"? CCTV coverage in Europe seems pretty pervasive, from what I've seen. All sorts of tracking, people and ANPR, presumably by the government.