And we might not give notice in the case of emergencies, such as threats to a child’s safety or threats to someone’s life, in which case we’ll provide notice if we learn that the emergency has passed. We might not give notice if the account has been disabled or hijacked. We still consider these requests in light of applicable laws and our policies.Īlthough a company spokesperson, speaking with CNET, indicated that they give users notice when their information is shared, the same terms of service linked to above indicate the notice may be delayed or never delivered, depending on the circumstances. If we reasonably believe that we can prevent someone from dying or from suffering serious physical harm, we may provide information to a government agency - for example, in the case of bomb threats, school shootings, kidnappings, suicide prevention, and missing persons cases. This is outlined in the section “Requests for Information in Emergencies.”
However, like Amazon, the company reserves the right to share user data, without user consent or a warrant, per the company’s terms of service. The company has no public-facing police collaborations and no application like Amazon’s Neighbors app that encourages customers to assist with police investigations. Google bought Nest way back in 2014 and has steadily built out the company with a plethora of easy-to-use smart cameras and a very popular smart doorbell that recently received a significant update. Google Nest Google/NestĬompared to Amazon, Google has kept a much lower profile in the various controversies surrounding sharing videos with law enforcement.
It is not enabled by default, and enabling it limits viewing and playback to your enrolled mobile device (which holds the decryption key).Īs a footnote in the Ring section, Amazon also owns the popular security camera company Blink-they acquired it in 2018-and t he privacy and terms of service for Blink are in alignment with the same policies Amazon uses for Ring. The encryption is not available for older hardware or the battery-powered versions of their doorbells, however. The Ring platform does support end-to-end encryption for users with compatible hardware. (a) comply with applicable law, regulation, legal process or reasonable preservation request (b) enforce these Terms, including investigation of any potential violation thereof (c) detect, prevent or otherwise address security, fraud or technical issues or (d) protect the rights, property or safety of Ring, its users, a third party, or the public as required or permitted by law.īased on what we now know, we can say that Amazon does give law enforcement officials access to Ring camera data without a warrant and, presumably, has done so prior to the 11 times they disclosed to Senator Markey. In addition to the rights granted above, you also acknowledge and agree that Ring may access, use, preserve and/or disclose your Content to law enforcement authorities, government officials, and/or third parties, if legally required to do so or if we have a good faith belief that such access, use, preservation or disclosure is reasonably necessary to: That video sharing, while questionable from a user privacy standpoint, is legal based on the Ring terms of service, excerpted below You can read the entire official Amazon response here. However, in July of 2022, in response to questions fielded by Senator Ed Markey (D-Mass), Amazon stated they had given law enforcement agencies access to Ring video footage 11 times in the first half of 2022-no data was supplied for prior years.
With over a million Ring doorbells sold per year, a whole lot of America is covered by the company’s nearly ubiquitous cameras.ĭespite all the controversy, Amazon maintained that they didn’t share video footage from users’ Ring cameras with law enforcement without user consent or by legally binding order. That tool was scrapped in 2019 and replaced with a general Request for Assistance function wherein the police could send a broad request to a neighborhood asking for footage relevant to a crime under investigation.