Amazon’s Ring cancels partnership with Flock, a network of AI cameras used by ICE, feds, and police

Ring, the Amazon-owned home security company, announced on Thursday that it will no longer partner with Flock Safety, a maker of AI-powered surveillance cameras that share footage with law enforcement.

The two companies announced a deal in October that would have allowed Ring doorbell users to share footage with Flock and its network of public safety agencies to assist with “evidence collection and investigative work.” As reported by 404 Media, Flock’s footage has been used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Secret Service, and the Navy, which all have had access to Flock’s tens of thousands of AI-enabled cameras. (Flock maintains that it does not explicitly work with ICE.)

Ring wrote in a blog post that it made a joint decision with Flock to cancel the partnership because the integration would “require significantly more time and resources than anticipated.”

This news comes less than a week after Ring’s Super Bowl ad aired, which showed how its AI-powered Search Party feature could use a network of neighborhood cameras to find lost dogs. The ad stoked controversy from viewers who worried that this technology could be leveraged against humans.

A Ring spokesperson has stated that this technology is “not capable of processing human biometrics.”

But this technology is not dissimilar from that of Flock. Using footage from Flock cameras, Flock’s government and police partners can make natural language searches of their video footage to find people who match specific descriptions. When this AI-powered technology is used by law enforcement, it has been shown to exacerbate racial biases.

Ring even rolled out a facial recognition feature in December called “Familiar Faces,” which allows users to catalog the faces of people who often visit their homes — that way, they might get a notification that says “Mom at Front Door,” rather than “a person is at your door.”

This technology is being marketed to consumers during a time in the United States when people are especially cognizant of the dangers of mass surveillance. ICE uses this same type of facial recognition technology, powered by companies like Clearview AI, to locate people in its mass deportation efforts.

Though its partnership with Flock won’t come to fruition, Ring has existing measures that enable users to share footage with law enforcement if they so choose. The company accomplishes this in part through a partnership with Axon, a company similar to Flock.

Ring has also historically had trouble keeping customers’ videos safe and secure. In 2023, the FTC ordered the company to pay $5.8 million over claims that employees and contractors had unrestricted access to customers’ videos for years.