As US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents wreak havoc on American communities, big tech companies have been making themselves indispensable to the increasingly tyrannical state.
Among them is Amazon subsidiary Ring, the company behind those AI doorbell cameras that have exploded in popularity over the last few years. Back in October, Ring announced that its devices would soon be looped into a network of Flock AI surveillance cameras. That network, an investigation by 404 Media found, has been available to local and federal police and enforcement agencies like ICE — leaving many worried that their Ring doorbell cams are now feeding into a government panopticon.
Sure enough, as anti-ICE protests ramp up throughout the US, activists are pushing a grassroots campaign to convince Ring users to smash their devices. Doing so, they say, could help deprive the federal government of footage it’s using to enact a campaign of harassment, arrests, and deportation.
“Smash your Ring doorbells,” progressive activist Guy Christensen urged his 3.5 million followers on TikTok. “You need to smash your Ring doorbells. Amazon owns Ring, and they’ve decided to begin sharing surveillance collected from your front step with ICE and Flock Safety, weaponing surveillance against the American people.”
“If you have home surveillance or something, make sure that you know, 100 percent, the footage being recorded of you and your family in your home, or wherever, is only and can only be seen and shared with you,” Christensen implored.
Safety experts and tech critics have long condemned the Ring devices for security risks and privacy violations, not to mention their role in building the largest civilian surveillance network in US history. Last summer, the Electronic Frontier Foundation warned that Ring was actively eroding civil liberties in the US for profit.
Those criticisms are seeing renewed urgency amidst ICE’s brutal crackdown on illegal immigration. Though unlawful entry into the United States is only considered a civil violation, ICE enforcement activities under president Donald Trump have resulted in at least 33 deaths — not to mention the unlawful detention of over 170 US citizens.
“Your Ring camerais an ICE agent,” urges a poster designed by Kathryn Brewster, a postdoctoral fellow and digital studies institute affiliate at the University of Michigan. Brewster’s artwork urges viewers to “unplug ring,” “melt ICE,” and “protect your neighbors!”
On Reddit, a flyer declaring that “ICE thanks YOU for YOUR cooperation” alongside a photo of a Ring camera made the rounds on numerous subreddits, earning thousands of upvotes.
Though the exact legal mechanics of the government’s access to Ring are murky at best, there’s definitely cause for alarm. In 2021, the Verge reported that though Ring notifies users when law enforcement has requested their footage, agencies are still able to subpoena it even after the device owner has denied their request. What’s more, the publication found that Amazon handed over the footage in 57 percent of cases.
Whether ICE is literally spying on your neighbors through your Ring doorbell at will is hard to say — but it’s clear that Amazon’s history on privacy leaves a lot to be desired.
More on immigration: ICE’s AI Tool Has Been a Complete Disaster
The post Fury as Amazon Ring Cameras Are Hooked Up to ICE System appeared first on Futurism.
