Since its introduction, Amazon’s Ring Video Doorbell has become one of its most popular items, as well as one of its most controversial.
The Ring security company was founded by entrepreneur Jamie Siminoff, who relied on crowdsourcing early on and even appeared on an episode of “Shark Tank” in an attempt to get funding.
In 2018, Ring was acquired by Amazon (AMZN), which helped greatly boost its visibility and the popularity of the company’s products. But this purchase also led to an increase in scrutiny for Ring, as well as a great deal of criticism for how the company handles user data.
Suffice to say, these criticisms are not going to die down, now that Ring has announced a new product that many people have been asking for…and that many other people think is a bad idea.
Ring Has Been Criticized For The Way It Handles User’s Data
Ring is most well-known for its smart home device, the Ring Video Doorbell, which has a motion detector and a hi-definition camera, which is controlled by the Ring App. Users can see what their camera is seeing at any given moment, get notified every time the doorbell is rung and even, in some models, talk to whomever is ringing the doorbell.
Users can choose to use the device with the Neighbors app, which to critics is the most vexing aspect of this device, as users can share footage with other users of the app, or share footage with law enforcement agencies. Proponents of the service argue this is all done in the name of security, while critics say the result is an informal but wide-reaching surveillance state, one that people just walking around on the street didn’t sign up for.
Ring has been frequently criticized for the amount of data it collects about users. Though it is not unique in this regard (nearly all major technology companies, from Slack to Spotify to Facebook, get criticized for collecting too much data), a piece last year from Wired broke down in detail just how much information Ring has about its customers.
-If you chose to enter it, Ring can have your social media handles, Wi-fi network and payment information.
-Moreover, Ring records every time your doorbell is pressed, every motion near the camera and every time you check your footage.
-Ring collects all video and audio it captures, which can sometimes be up to 25 feet, so basically anytime you walk by a house with Ring, that’s likely getting recorded.
-The extend to which Ring stores this information, and for how long, and what you can do to delete it, is a murky issue with no clear cut answer.
Additionally, Ring has been criticized for leading to an increase in racial profiling in neighborhoods, as the company has admitted, after responding to an inquiry from US Senator Ed Markey (D-Mass.), to giving, in some instances, private recordings, including video and audio to the police, without informing users.
At Amazon’s annual shareholder meeting in 2021, a proposal to audit the company’s impact on civil rights, equity and diversity issues, including whether Ring and the Neighbors app “disproportionally tag people of color as suspicious,” was narrowly defeated.
But in response to criticisms, Ring has said that there are rules about what people are allowed to post, and that people can log in to the service to delete the videos, but the company may ultimately keep them.
Ring
Ring Now Wants To Watch Your Car
The Ring Car Cam is now available for pre-order for $249.99. It comes with a dual-facing camera that will record when your camera is in motion and when it is turned off.
If a break-in is detected, the camera will start recording and send a real-time alert to your Ring App, so you can watch what is happening. You can also talk remotely with anyone near your car, or have it record whatever is happening nearby, in case you want a record during an accident. The device can also be used to record being pulled over by the police, which could potentially be helpful in civil rights cases.
In response to concerns about privacy, the company has stated that “Customer privacy, security, and control are foundational to Ring, and we designed Car Cam to empower customers to protect their personal information and videos, and to respect the privacy of others.”
The camera only starts recording when the smart sensors detect an event or when users initiate Live View, and there is an LED light to clearly indicate when the microphone and inside-facing camera are on and recording, while a privacy shutter for the inside-facing camera can disable recording.
