Ring Is Using Its Customers’ Doorbell Camera Video For Ads. It Says It’s Allowed To

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Publish Date:
June 7, 2019
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Source:
BuzzFeed News
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Summary

Amazon’s doorbell camera company Ring is featuring its customers’ home security footage in Facebook advertisements, encouraging people to identify and report suspected criminals to the police. The company is able to do this thanks to a broad terms of service agreement that grants it the perpetual right to use footage shared with it for “any purpose” it chooses.

Earlier this week, Twitter users pointed out that Ring was using images from customer security footage in promoted posts on the social network. These ads included details on suspects and their alleged crimes, and contact information for local police departments. Using Facebook’s ad library tool, BuzzFeed News found more than a half dozen active Ring ads, which the Amazon-owned company calls “Community Alerts,” showing the faces of suspected criminals in many US cities, including Baltimore, Kansas City, and Las Vegas.

Jennifer King, director of consumer privacy at Stanford Law School’s Center for Internet and Society, called Ring’s practice of asking for user consent to pass imagery on to law enforcement and then using that footage for its own ads “shady.”

“I don’t know if it’s illegal, but that seems like a violation of expectations,” she said. “There’s a difference between public service and profiteering.”

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