Why Amazon gave Ring video to police without users' permission

Amazon has admitted to giving Ring doorbell video footage to police without receiving permission from the users.

The Associated Press reports that this happened 11 times in 2022, so far, according to Democratic Senator Edward Markey of Massachusetts, who asked the Seattle-based company to address his concerns.

“As my ongoing investigation into Amazon illustrates, it has become increasingly difficult for the public to move, assemble, and converse in public without being tracked and recorded,” Markey said in a statement.

Law enforcement departments in various cities have made requests for video from Ring's cameras in the past. Ring's product is a doorbell with a camera that can provide users with a view of their front door whenever somebody knocks. It can also show what is happening out their front door via a user's smartphone. Video is often recorded in such instances.

Ring has said that it would not share this and other information with police without getting users' permission or a warrant first. But Amazon, which owns Ring, says the video clips were shared with police because they fell under its emergency provision.

Ring's emergency provision states that Ring “reserves the right to respond immediately to urgent law enforcement requests for information."

“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," Brian Huseman, Amazon’s vice president for public policy, stated in a letter to Sen. Markey, addressing the 11 videos turned over to police this year.

Read more at The Associated Press.

Some police departments in Western Washington have gone about this issue another way. Renton, for example, has a camera registration program that residents sign up for. Instead of police going to Ring or Amazon for video, the program allows residents to voluntarily sign up for a home camera list. If and when an incident occurs in an area, police can check the list to see if anybody nearby has a camera with potential video footage. Police cannot access the video remotely. Rather, the resident is contacted and asked to check their video feed.

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