Young Research & Publishing Inc.

Investment Research Since 1978

Disclosure

  • About Us
    • Contributors
    • Archives
    • Dick Young’s Safe America
    • The Final Richard C. Young’s Intelligence Report
    • You’ve Read The Last Issue of Intelligence Report, Now What?
    • Dick Young’s Research Key: Anecdotal Evidence Gathering
    • Crisis at Vanguard
  • Investment Analysis
    • Bonds
    • Currencies and Gold
    • Dividend Investing
    • ETFs & Funds
    • Investment Strategy
    • Retirement Investing
    • Stocks
    • The Efficient Frontier
  • Investment Counsel
  • Retirement Compounders®
  • Free Email Signup

Is Ring the New Neighborhood Watch?

August 28, 2019 By Jeremy Jones, CFA

By Fortgens Photography @ Shutterstock.com

Across America, 400 police forces have signed up to work with Amazon’s Ring doorbell camera service. The deal gives the police access to surveillance footage from cameras mounted on people’s doorways. The program has generated concerns from civil liberties activists, but has also helped create a new digitized “neighborhood watch.” Drew Harwell reports for The Washington Post:

The doorbell-camera company Ring has quietly forged video-sharing partnerships with more than 400 police forces across the United States, granting them access to homeowners’ camera footage and a powerful role in what the company calls America’s “new neighborhood watch.”

The partnerships let police automatically request the video recorded by homeowners’ cameras within a specific time and area, helping officers see footage from the company’s millions of Internet-connected cameras installed nationwide, the company said. Officers don’t receive ongoing or live-video access, and homeowners can decline the requests, which Ring sends via email thanking them for “making your neighborhood a safer place.”

The number of police deals, which has not previously been reported, will likely fuel broader questions about privacy, surveillance and the expanding reach of tech giants and local police. The rapid growth of the program, which launched last spring, surprised some civil-liberties advocates, who believed fewer than 300 agencies had signed on.

Ring is owned by Amazon, which bought the firm last year for more than $800 million, financial filings show. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos also owns The Washington Post.

Ring officials and law-enforcement partners portray the vast camera network as an irrepressible shield for American neighborhoods, saying it can assist police investigators and protect homes from criminals, intruders and thieves.

“The mission has always been making the neighborhood safer,” said Eric Kuhn, the general manager of Neighbors, Ring’s crime-focused companion app. “We’ve had a lot of success in terms of deterring crime and solving crimes that would otherwise not be solved as quickly.”

But legal experts and privacy advocates have voiced alarm over the company’s eyes-everywhere ambitions and increasingly close relationship with police, saying the program could threaten civil liberties, turn residents into informants and subject innocent people, including those who Ring users have flagged as “suspicious,” to greater surveillance and potential risk.

“If the police demanded every citizen put a camera at their door and give officers access to it, we might all recoil,” said Andrew Guthrie Ferguson, a law professor and author of “The Rise of Big Data Policing.”

By tapping into “a perceived need for more self-surveillance and by playing on consumer fears about crime and security,” he added, Ring has found “a clever workaround for the development of a wholly new surveillance network, without the kind of scrutiny that would happen if it was coming from the police or government.”

Read more here.

Share this:

  • Email
  • Twitter
  • Facebook

You Might Also Like:

  • Apple Watch Could Save Lives with New Capability
  • Portfolio Strategy: Watch the Divergences
  • Three Risks to Watch for in 2018
  • Author
  • Recent Posts
Jeremy Jones, CFA
Jeremy Jones, CFA, CFP® is the Director of Research at Young Research & Publishing Inc., and the Chief Investment Officer at Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd. CNBC has ranked Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd. as one of the Top 100 Financial Advisors in the nation (2019-2022) Disclosure. Jeremy is also a contributing editor of youngresearch.com.
Latest posts by Jeremy Jones, CFA (see all)
  • Money Market Assets Hit Record High: $5.4 Trillion - May 26, 2023
  • The Mania in AI Stocks Has Arrived - May 25, 2023
  • The Wisdom of Sam Zell - May 24, 2023

Search Young Research

Most Popular

  • Letter to the Federal Reserve Chairman from Your Survival Guy
  • What Does That Have to Do with Your Dividend?
  • Is an Investment Property Disaster Looming?
  • “I Came from Nothing,” He Said. “I Mean Nothing.”
  • Private Debt Funds: More Risk than Meets the Eye
  • The Wisdom of Sam Zell
  • How Activists Have Weaponized Corporate Boards
  • Is Japan Rising Once More?
  • Vanguard Wellesley (VWINX) vs. Wellington (VWELX): Which Fund is Best?
  • When Did You Become Serious about Your Money?

Don’t Miss

Default Risk Among the Many Concerns with Annuities

Risk and Reward: An Efficient Frontier

How to be a Billionaire: Proven Strategies from the Titans of Wealth

Cryptocosm and Life After Google

Warning: Avoid Mutual Fund Year End Distributions

Is Gold a Good Long-term Investment?

How to Invest in Gold

Vanguard Wellington (VWELX): The Original Balanced Fund

What is the Best Gold ETF for Investing and Trading?

Procter & Gamble (PG) Stock: The Only True Dividend King

The Dividend King of the North

You’ll Love This if You’re Dreaming of an Active Retirement Life

The Importance of a Balanced Portfolio

Invest with Peace of Mind and Comfort

What Kind of Life Are You Investing For?

RSS The Latest at Richardcyoung.com

  • Pushing the Envelope Too Far
  • Your Survival Guy in Rome 30-Years A.B. (After Babson)
  • America’s Favorite Wordsmith Needs Tutoring
  • A Three-Week International Research Trip to Paris via Rome
  • BIOTERROR RISK: The Dangers Genetically Modified Insects
  • Why Be Proud?
  • What Does That Have to Do with Your Dividend?
  • Will Biden’s Ukraine Gambit Be America’s Worst Foreign Policy Disaster?
  • Stossel Says DeSantis Is “Smarter and Better than Biden.”
  • What Would They Give Up for “Equity”?

RSS The Latest at Yoursurvivalguy.com

  • Your Survival Guy in Rome 30-Years A.B. (After Babson)
  • Insurers Now Fleeing the Net Zero Insurance Alliance
  • A Three-Week International Research Trip to Paris via Rome
  • Will Biden Repeat Obama with US Debt Downgrade?
  • What Does That Have to Do with Your Dividend?
  • The ESG Cartel
  • Two More States Nearing Passage of Permitless Carry Legislation
  • How Activists Have Weaponized Corporate Boards
  • Letter to the Federal Reserve Chairman from Your Survival Guy
  • Big Blue Blob Cities Get Bad News from Census Report

About Us

  • About Young Research
  • Archives
  • Contributors

Our Partners

  • Richard C. Young & Co.
  • Richardcyoung.com

Copyright © 2023 | Terms & Conditions

 

Loading Comments...
 

    loading Cancel
    Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
    Email check failed, please try again
    Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.