Ring Security Cameras
Spied on: US police got access to private Amazon cameras – without asking users
Extremely popular in the USA: Surveillance cameras from the Amazon subsidiary Ring.
©PR
Amazon’s Ring subsidiary has a long history of working collaboratively with American law enforcement. Now a US senator found out: Authorities were given access to the recordings even if permission was not available.
For years, the Amazon subsidiary Ring has built a reputation for working closely with the police in the United States. Last made before 2019 a report the round that American police stations are setting up whole networks of private surveillance cameras in order to be able to monitor the neighborhoods more efficiently on a voluntary basis. Now it came out: Apparently, the user’s consent or a judicial order is not always given when Amazon grants the police this access.
Three years ago, there was largely no scandal, because Amazon explained at the time that the authorities had to be explicitly allowed to access the video feeds and that nobody had anything to fear if this did not happen. The company even condemned the actions of some police stations, which gave out Ring cameras to citizens free of charge, but demanded access to the recordings in return.
Eleven ring accesses via loophole – this year
But there has always been a loophole: In undefined “emergencies”, more precisely “cases in which there is an imminent danger of death or serious physical injury to a person”, Ring grants itself the right to continue the recordings even in the absence of a judicial order or permission of users to share with the police.
As “The Intercept” reports, this has happened eleven times this year. That’s what Brian Huseman, Amazon’s head of political affairs, said. This was requested by US Senator Ed Markey, who recently asked the company about Ring and its cooperation with the police.
The senator’s letter also dealt with the loophole that Amazon has granted itself. He asks, “Please explain in detail the Ring’s specific internal policies as to what constitutes an ‘urgent’ circumstance.”
Amazon evaded, “Based on the regulatory information and the circumstances described, Ring will determine, to the best of its knowledge and belief, whether the application meets the known standard enshrined in federal law that there is an imminent threat of death or serious bodily harm to a person who prompt disclosure of the information.”
“Trust bonus lost”
That’s a problem for privacy advocate Matthew Guariglia. In the report by “The Intercept”, he says that in his eyes, Amazon and its own brand Ring would have lost any trust bonus if it wasn’t up to the users alone to share the recordings with the police.
He advises activating end-to-end encryption on the cameras – because this has to be done manually. Senator Markey also elaborates on this feature, asking, “Will Ring commit to making end-to-end encryption of stored recordings the default option for users, so Ring and Amazon don’t have access to user videos?”
Amazon also finds an explanation for this and evades again: “With video end-to-end encryption, customers can only view their encrypted videos on their registered mobile devices. This means that some functions will be disabled if customers end-to-end -Enable End Encryption. User control is fundamental to Ring, and we recognize that this advanced feature may not be appropriate for all customers.”
source: The Intercept