Ring cancels its partnership with Flock Safety after surveillance backlash

Following aggravated backlash to its partnership pinch Flock Safety, a surveillance exertion institution that useful pinch rule enforcement agencies, Ring has announced it is canceling the integration.

In a connection published connected Ring’s blog and provided to The Verge up of publication, the institution said: “Following a broad review, we wished the planned Flock Safety integration would require importantly much clip and resources than anticipated. We truthful made the associated determination to cancel the integration and proceed pinch our existent partners … The integration ne'er launched, truthful nary Ring customer videos were ever sent to Flock Safety.”

The connection goes connected to opportunity that Ring’s ngo to make neighborhoods safer “comes pinch important work — to our customers, to the communities we serve, and to the spot you spot successful our products and features.”

Trust is the large 1 there. Over the past fewer weeks, the institution has faced important nationalist anger complete its relationship to Flock, pinch Ring users being encouraged to smash their cameras, and immoderate announcing connected societal media that they are throwing distant their Ring devices.

The Flock business was announced past October, but pursuing caller unrest crossed the state related to ICE activities, nationalist unit against the Amazon-owned Ring’s engagement pinch the institution started to mount.

Flock has reportedly allowed ICE and different national agencies to entree its web of surveillance cameras, and influencers crossed societal media person been claiming that Ring is providing a nonstop nexus to ICE.

While that declare is not accurate, arsenic the Flock integration has ne'er gone live, Ring does person a history of partnering pinch police, and the institution quickly came nether aggravated criticism.

Then, adding substance to the fire, this play Ring aired an advertisement during the Super Bowl for its caller AI-powered Search Party feature. While the institution says its designed to find mislaid dogs, maintaining the characteristic is not tin of uncovering people, the advertisement quickly raised fears that Ring cameras were being utilized for wide surveillance. The advertisement shows dozens of Ring cameras successful a vicinity scanning the streets.

On apical of this, the institution precocious launched a caller facial nickname feature, Familiar Faces. Combined pinch Search Party, the technological leap to utilizing vicinity cameras to hunt for group done a mass-surveillance web abruptly seems very small.

Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) – a longtime professional of Ring – sent an unfastened missive this week calling connected Amazon to cancel the company’s facial nickname feature.

Ring spokesperson Yassi Yarger said successful an email that its products are purpose-driven tech, “not devices for wide surveillance.” She added that “Familiar Faces is an opt-in characteristic designed to springiness customers much power complete the alerts they person (e.g., ‘Mom astatine beforehand door’ alternatively of ‘Someone astatine beforehand door’) while keeping their information protected.”

Ring’s business pinch Flock was announced successful October 2025 arsenic portion of Ring’s Community Requests program, which launched past September. It was designed to let section rule enforcement agencies that usage Flock’s package to merge straight pinch the program.

In its connection astir the Flock cancellation, Ring maintains that Community Requests will continue, claiming it helped authorities find a fishy during the caller Brown University shooting:

As pinch RFA, Community Requests still allows nationalist information agencies to petition video footage from users successful a definite area during an progressive investigation, but it differs fromthe erstwhile programme because rule enforcement agencies are required to partner pinch a third-party grounds guidance strategy – specified arsenic Flock – to usage the service. Ring says this is to amended support the concatenation of custody. The erstwhile strategy allowed constabulary to petition footage straight from a user.

Flock was the 2nd partner Ring announced for Community Requests, the first being Axon, a rule enforcement exertion institution known for making Tasers. With the caller service, only rule enforcement agencies that usage these companies’ package tin taxable requests. But the extremity consequence is the same: rule enforcement gets video from users if they take to stock it.

Ring spokesperson Yassi Yarger says the Axon business is unaffected by the extremity of the Flock integration. Additionally, she says nary different integrations are presently being explored.