SURVEILLANCE STATE: Amazon cancels partnership following Super Bowl ad backlash due to privacy concerns over doorbell cams
Amazon's Ring has canceled its planned partnership with Flock Safety, a police tech company that operates automated license plate readers and provides software to law enforcement for evidence collection and investigations.
The integration, announced in October 2025, would have allowed Ring video doorbell owners to share footage with agencies using Flock's systems. Ring announced the termination this week, stating the partnership was never active and no customer videos were ever shared. The companies made the joint decision after determining the integration would require significantly more time and resources than anticipated.
The cancellation followed public backlash triggered by Ring's Super Bowl ad promoting its "Search Party" feature, which uses AI to activate a network of participating Ring cameras to scan footage for lost pets. Privacy advocates, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, criticized the ad and the Flock partnership as a "surveillance nightmare." The scrutiny occurred amid broader pressure on technology firms to limit cooperation with federal agencies such as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection. A protest is scheduled this weekend outside Amazon's Seattle headquarters to call for Amazon to sever ties with Flock, ICE, and CBP.
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Ring stated it built the Search Party feature with strong privacy protections, allowing users to approve video sharing on a case-by-case basis. Flock has denied sharing data with ICE or any Department of Homeland Security sub-agencies. Amazon acquired Ring in 2018 for $839 million, and its founder, Jamie Siminoff, returned as CEO in 2025 to refocus on crime prevention. Ring's devices record home activity and send alerts via an app, though the company has recently emphasized family-friendly uses like catching porch pirates.