Amazon ends Flock partnership after backlash over Super Bowl ad

Amazon's Ring portion has ended its woody with information exertion institution Flock Safety aft backlash implicit a Super Bowl commercialized for the retail giant's astute doorbell sparked concerns astir unwanted surveillance. 

The Ring Super Bowl advertisement portrayed a family's hunt for their mislaid dog, with the manufacturer's internet-enabled doorbell coming to the rescue by showing further astute doorbells astir the vicinity scanning for the favored and utilizing AI to place the mislaid animal. 

The service, called "Search Party," wasn't related to Flock, but Amazon past twelvemonth said it planned to enactment with the institution to springiness Ring owners the enactment of sharing video with instrumentality enforcement done Ring's "Community Requests" service.

Surveillance "nightmare"?

While Search Party was framed successful the Super Bowl advertisement arsenic a adjuvant enactment for Ring doorbell owners, the spot sparked concerns from immoderate critics that the tech could beryllium utilized for nefarious purposes. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit that focuses connected civilian liberties related to integer technology, declared that "no 1 ... volition beryllium safer successful Ring's surveillance nightmare."

"[T]he institution previewed aboriginal surveillance of our streets: a satellite wherever biometric recognition could beryllium unleashed from user devices to identify, way and find thing — human, pet, and otherwise," the radical said successful a Feb. 10 blog post.

In a statement on Thursday, Ring said that it opted to extremity the concern due to the fact that integrating Flock's exertion "would necessitate importantly much clip and resources than anticipated." The connection didn't notation the Super Bowl commercialized oregon mention it arsenic a crushed for ending the agreement. 

Ring laminitis Jamie Siminoff told CBS News connected Thursday that the institution protects privacy. 

"The backlash has been a small spot astir this conception of, 'Is this surveillance?'," helium said. "It's really not. It's allowing your camera to beryllium an intelligent adjunct for you and past allowing you to beryllium a large neighbor."

Smart doorbells successful the spotlight

The absorption connected Ring comes amid different high-profile usage of a astute doorbell, with investigators successful caller days saying they had recovered footage from a Google Nest camera extracurricular the Arizona location of Nancy Guthrie — the missing parent of "Today" co-host Savannah Guthrie. 

Investigators said they were capable to extract "residual data" from the Google equipment, raising questions astir however it was imaginable to clasp the video. Officials had said the doorbell was disconnected, with nary progressive subscription for storing video. 

In its Thursday statement, Ring said its Community Requests diagnostic remains "core" to its mission. The work is optional and voluntary, it added. 

Community Requests was besides utilized during the Brown University shooting successful December, erstwhile the Providence Police Department utilized the work to inquire for video footage, Ring noted.

"Within hours, 7 neighbors responded, sharing 168 videos that captured captious moments from the incident," Ring said. "One video identified a caller cardinal witness, helping pb constabulary to place the suspect's conveyance and lick the case."

Edited by Alain Sherter

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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