“For the first time ever, there’s a comprehensive map on where local police departments have partnered with Amazon’s Ring,” CNet’s Alfred Ng writes.
“Amazon and police have been working closely together with Ring partnerships, sometimes using taxpayer money to buy video doorbells and offer them to residents at a discount.”
The technology rights nonprofit Fight For the Future just released its ‘ We found more than 50 different police departments who announced partnerships with Ring over the last two years, but it definitely wasn't all in one convenient place. This is what that research looked like: pic.twitter.com/QTnaMryX7q — alfred ? (@alfredwkng) July 18, 2019 From Alfred’s report for CNET: A CNET investigation found that more than 50 police departments across the US have partnered with Ring, many who offer free or discounted Ring doorbells using taxpayer money. It’s helped police create an accessible surveillance network in people’s neighborhoods, and allowed law enforcement to request for videos from an app. Until Fight for the Future’s map released on Thursday, there was no comprehensive directory of all the police departments that had partnered with Ring. You can find the police departments using Ring by going on the map and toggling it to “Police (Local).” It lists more than 40 cities on the map where police have partnered with Amazon for Ring doorbells. The map also has filters for airports, stores and stadiums that are using facial recognition, as well as states that provide driver’s license photos to the FBI’s database of faces. “People want to know whether face scanning surveillance is happening in their town and what they can do about it,” Fight for the Future’s deputy director Evan Greer said in a statement. “The goal of this map is to allow people to turn their ambient anxiety into effective action by pushing at the local and state level to ban this dangerous tech. No amount of regulation will fix the the threat posed by facial recognition, it must be banned. “ The map published today by Fight for the Future also offers a filter to highlight the places where government use of facial recognition technology is prohibited by law. For now, three places only: San Francisco, CA; Somerville, MA, and Oakland, CA. Read more: This map tells you where police have partnered with Amazon’s Ring [cnet.com] The Map: BAN FACIAL RECOGNITION [banfacialrecognition.com]