Ring's New Policy: A Win for Privacy
The short version: Ring curbing police requests for doorbell footage is a modest privacy win, but it does nothing to slow the license-plate reader networks quietly blanketing our roads.
Our Take
Credit to TrendingNow for flagging Amazon Ring's move to stop letting police request doorbell footage directly through the Neighbors app. That's a real, if narrow, concession — for years Ring built an informal surveillance partnership with thousands of police departments, and rolling back the "Request for Assistance" tool removes one easy on-ramp for cops fishing for video without a warrant.
But let's not get carried away. This is one company adjusting one feature. It doesn't touch the automated license plate reader networks — like Flock Safety's — that log every car that passes a camera, store the data for weeks, and share it across jurisdictions with far less friction than a doorbell request ever required. Ring footage is opt-in and spotty; ALPR networks are systematic, always-on, and often installed without residents ever voting on it.
If you want to see how far that dragnet has spread near you, check our camera map, and if you're ready to push back on secret contracts and unaccountable data sharing in your own town, our take-action guide is the place to start. A single corporate policy tweak is nice PR — the real fight is the infrastructure nobody's asking permission to build.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of TrendingNow, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.