Amazon.com’s Ring doorbell unit, which records videos outside an owner’s home, has provided footage to law enforcement without the user’s consent 11 times so far this year, the company said.
Amazon said it provided the video in case of emergency. Senator Edward Markey, a lawmaker interested in privacy, released a letter on the subject from Amazon on Wednesday that was a response to his inquiries to the company.
“In each case, Ring made a good-faith determination that there was an imminent danger of death or serious bodily injury to an individual requiring disclosure without delay,” wrote Brian Husman, vice president of public policy for Amazon.
The company also said it has 2,161 law enforcement agencies on its Neighbors Public Safety service, which allows police and others to ask ring owners for footage.
“The increasing responsibility of law enforcement over private surveillance creates an accountability crisis,” Markey said in a statement.
Amazon’s Ring said in a statement that it complies with the law.
“The law authorizes companies like Ring to provide information to government agencies if the company believes that disclosure is required without delay in an emergency involving a person in danger of death or serious bodily injury, such as a kidnapping or attempted murder,” the company said. In a statement.
In the letter, Hussman declined to specify when the ring technology might capture audio and how sensitive the audio recordings are. Users can easily disable the audio.
It also refused to promise to make end-to-end encryption the default for Ring data. End-to-end encryption is available although it will disable some features.
Markey said he is concerned that Amazon and other tech companies will start using biometric data in their systems and noted that he and others have introduced a bill aimed at restricting law enforcement’s access to such information.
© Thomson Reuters 2022
Affiliate links may be automatically generated – see our ethics statement for details.