The controversial Ring Neighbours security camera feature is coming to the UK. The Amazon-owned company behind the popular video doorbell range has revealed the ‘hyper local’ neighbourhood watch-style feature – which enables communities to post messages and footage of concerning incidents, thefts, or make neighbours aware of lost dogs – will go live on October 21.
The controversial element of the Ring app-based feature is the ability to opt-in to share footage with the police anonymously on a per-event basis via a request for assistance. The rollout also includes the Search Party feature, the cuddly Trojan horse element that aims to reunite lost pets with their owners, amid turning your street into a police surveillance state.
In the US, Neighbourhood was deemed another sign of Ring’s cosy relationship with the authorities that, until recently, also included an alliance with the horrific Flock cameras. The feature was criticised for potentially eroding civil liberties and privacy by providing an avenue for residents to rat out their neighbours for going about their daily business and the police to overstep their boundaries in their investigations.
Amazon climbed down and now cops must ensure they have a warrant before obtaining doorbell camera footage from residents rather than simply requesting it within the app’s local message boards. And rightly so.
That doesn’t seem to be the case in Britain right now, with Ring highlighting the Community Request feature that “gives neighbours the opportunity to voluntarily share relevant videos with public safety agencies during investigations.”
There’s no mention of a warrant in the small print either.
The expanded text reads: “A Community Request is a post from a verified local public safety agency to request help on a local investigation from community members within a specific area. You can choose to share videos or information in response to the post. Participation is always voluntary, and public safety agencies can only see what you choose to share. Read more about Community Requests here.”
Community Requests will be part of a later feature roll out, Ring says. So there is time to put the mockers on this. Furthermore, a privacy bug identified in 2021 found that Neighbours had shared users precise home addresses of those who posted within the app. Nice one. Be on guard.
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