Under pressure from the United States public, doorbell camera maker Ring has announced a “joint decision” to end its partnership with Flock Safety, a tech company that operates automated license-plate reading systems.
The two US-based businesses have faced backlash over concerns that their products could be used by AI systems and law enforcement to spy on users.
“Following a comprehensive review, we determined the planned Flock Safety integration would require significantly more time and resources than anticipated,” Ring said in a statement posted on Thursday.
“The integration never launched, so no Ring customer videos were ever sent to Flock Safety,” the statement reads.
However, the statement makes no reference to the “Search Party” feature at the center of the current controversy. And while Flock Safety is under fire over its products being used to support the work of ICE and the US Border Patrol, it remains unclear whether ending the partnership will in any way affect Ring’s “Search Party” feature, which is already operating.
Ring and its CEO on blast over Superbowl ad
The Amazon-owned Ring triggered public outcry with a 30-second ad aired during the Super bowl last Sunday.
The final NFL game, watched by nearly 125 million people, included a commercial about a fictional family losing their dog and finding it using Ring’s “Search Party” feature through a network of connected outdoor cameras. The ad also features Ring founder and CEO Jamie Siminoff.
“‘Search Party’ from Ring uses AI to help families find lost dogs… Be a hero in your neighborhood with ‘Search Party’,” Siminoff’s voice-over says.
However, users and experts quickly pointed out that the feature could be used to track human beings.
“Amazon Ring already integrates biometric identification, like face recognition, into its products via features like ‘Familiar Faces’,” privacy nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation wrote on Tuesday.
“It doesn’t take much to imagine Ring eventually combining these two features: face recognition and neighborhood searches.”
Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey also blasted the ad on social media, calling it “mass surveillance.”
“What this ad doesn’t show: Ring also rolled out facial recognition for humans. I wrote to them months ago about this. Their answer? They won’t ask for your consent.”
What did Ring say?
Responding to the controversy, Ring spokesperson Emma Daniels told The Verge that the “Search Party” feature was designed to track dogs and was “not capable of processing human biometrics.”
Pressed on the potential for tracking people, she said those features “are not capable of that today.”
“We don’t comment on feature road maps, but I have no knowledge or indication that we’re building features like that at this point,” she told the US tech outlet.
Edited by: Louis Oelofse
