Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

Yes. But ONLY if the user VOLUNTARILY shares the footage on a per-incident basis. As the article says explicitly.

Guess what? If the police come to my house and ask me for physical photos and I show them photos out of the kindness of my heart, that's without a warrant too. I'm under no obligation though, and neither is a Ring user.

You're making it sound like police have access to footage without a user's consent, or without consent per individual incident. That's simply FALSE.




From their privacy policy:

We also may disclose personal information about you (1) if we are required to do so by law or legal process (such as a court order or subpoena); (2) to establish, exercise or defend our legal rights; (3) when we believe disclosure is necessary or appropriate to prevent physical or other harm or financial loss; (4) in connection with an investigation of suspected or actual illegal activity; or (5) otherwise with your consent.

https://ring.com/privacy-notice

It says both “by court order” and “to help solve a crime”, separately.

Amazon is within its policy to help the police without a warrant.


I'm not a lawyer so I'm not qualified to interpret what (4) means -- its legal purpose or ramifications.

But Amazon has explicitly and publicly stated they don't share Ring videos with law enforcement without user consent (at least not without a court order), and there have been zero news articles about them doing so.

So your insinuation that Amazon is handing police user videos without consent or warrants continues to be utterly unsubstantiated.


It’s a privacy policy. They could get sued but no one is going to prison for “violating” it.

And I never said they’re actively doing it all over the place.

I said they could and be within the permissions they’ve given themselves.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: