Amazon Ring letter to Senator Markey: full transcription
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Get the kit: $12 instant download →In each instance, Ring made a good-faith determination that there was an imminent danger of death or serious physical injury to a person requiring disclosure of information without delay.
More than 2,000 law enforcement agencies and more than 450 fire departments are enrolled in Ring’s Neighbors safety app, with an online portal allowing agencies to request data in cases of life-threatening emergencies.
Ring does not currently offer voice recognition technology. Amazon did not commit to any further restriction on the future incorporation of biometric or voice recognition capability into Ring products in response to Senator Markey’s direct request that it do so.
EFF policy analyst Matthew Guariglia, responding to the letter’s disclosures: We know how many times they’ve given up data under these exigent circumstances, but we have no idea how many requests they receive and if they reject any requests. Ring, which is an unelected private company with a profit motive, gets to be the people who decide whether or not the police request is in good faith or not.
This transcription covers the letter’s core disclosures on warrantless footage sharing, law enforcement enrollment figures, and Amazon’s response to the biometric technology question. The full letter addresses additional questions from Senator Markey’s original inquiry not reproduced here.
Document: Letter from Brian Huseman, Amazon.com, Inc., to Senator Edward Markey. July 1, 2022.
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