Proposed Ring-Flock partnership (2025-2026)

The proposed Ring–Flock Safety partnership was an announced integration between Amazon-owned Ring and surveillance technology company Flock Safety, which would have enabled law enforcement agencies using Flock's platforms to request footage from Ring camera owners through Ring's "Community Requests" feature. Announced in October 2025, the partnership was cancelled on February 12, 2026, before ever becoming operational, following significant public backlash and criticism from privacy advocates and members of the United States Congress.

The cancellation came days after Ring's Super Bowl LX advertisement for its "Search Party" feature drew widespread criticism for what viewers described as depicting a "dystopian" surveillance network. Although Search Party was technically unrelated to the Flock partnership, public concern about both initiatives became interlinked in the ensuing controversy.

Background

Ring's law enforcement partnerships

Ring, acquired by Amazon in 2018, has maintained relationships with law enforcement agencies since approximately 2016. By 2022, Amazon disclosed to Senator Ed Markey that 2,161 law enforcement agencies were part of Ring's Neighbors Public Safety Service.

In January 2024, Ring discontinued its "Request for Assistance" tool, which had allowed police to directly request footage from Ring users. However, following the return of founder Jamie Siminoff as CEO in April 2025, Ring launched a replacement program called "Community Requests" through partnerships with third-party evidence management companies.

Flock Safety

Flock Safety, founded in 2017 and headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, manufactures automated license plate reader (ALPR) cameras, AI-powered video surveillance systems, and gunshot detection technology. By 2025, the company operated over 80,000 cameras across approximately 7,000 networks in 49 U.S. states, partnering with more than 5,000 law enforcement agencies.

Flock Safety has faced criticism regarding its technology's connections to federal immigration enforcement. In May 2025, 404 Media reported that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had accessed Flock's network through local police departments conducting searches on ICE's behalf. Flock has stated that it does not have a direct partnership with ICE and that federal agencies cannot directly access its cameras or data.

The proposed partnership

On October 31, 2025, Ring and Flock Safety announced their intention to integrate Flock's FlockOS and Flock Nova platforms with Ring's Community Requests feature.

Under the planned system, law enforcement officers using Flock's software could post a "Community Request" in the Ring Neighbors app during active investigations. Each request would include the specific location, timeframe, incident details, and a case number. Ring users who saw the request could choose whether to share video footage or ignore it. According to Ring, participation would be voluntary, and law enforcement agencies could not see which users received their requests.

Consumer consent concerns

Privacy advocates raised concerns about the consent model. While Ring device owners could choose whether to share footage, individuals captured on Ring cameras—such as passersby, visitors, and delivery workers—had no ability to consent to being recorded or to having that footage shared with law enforcement.

Additionally, when a Ring user chose to share footage through Community Requests, their home address and email address were provided to the requesting law enforcement agency, a detail users were notified of before sharing.

The Flock integration was Ring's second law enforcement technology partnership for Community Requests; a similar partnership with Axon Enterprise had been announced concurrently and remains active.

Super Bowl advertisement and backlash

On February 8, 2026, Ring aired a 30-second advertisement during Super Bowl LX promoting its "Search Party" feature, an AI-powered tool designed to help locate lost pets by scanning footage from Ring cameras across a neighborhood.

While technically unrelated to the Flock partnership, the advertisement prompted widespread criticism. Viewers described the depiction of a coordinated camera network scanning an entire community as "dystopian" and "sinister." Social media users expressed concern that the same technology could be used to track people rather than pets.

Default opt-in feature

See also: Dark pattern § Forced_action

The backlash was amplified by the revelation that Search Party was enabled by default on eligible outdoor Ring cameras, requiring users to actively opt out rather than opt in. This default-on design drew criticism as an example of practices that automatically enroll consumers in data-sharing arrangements without their explicit consent.

Ring stated that users retain control over whether to share any footage identified by Search Party and that nothing is shared automatically. However, the automatic scanning of footage on participating cameras occurs regardless of whether the device owner has made an active choice.

Viral misinformation

Following the Super Bowl advertisement, a viral post on X falsely claimed that ICE could directly access Ring cameras. The post received approximately 2 million views and prompted some Ring users to cancel their subscriptions. While Ring has stated it has no partnership with ICE and does not share video with the agency, the claims contributed to the broader backlash against the company. Flock and Ring do have relationships with local US police departments, who in some cases co-operate with federal agencies such as ICE.

Cancellation

On February 12, 2026, Ring and Flock Safety jointly announced the cancellation of their planned partnership.

Ring's response

Ring published a statement on its blog stating: "Following a comprehensive review, we determined the planned Flock Safety integration would require significantly more time and resources than anticipated. As a result, we have made the joint decision to cancel the planned integration." The company emphasized that "the integration never launched, so no Ring customer videos were ever sent to Flock Safety."

Ring spokesperson Emma Daniels confirmed that the partnership was never active and that no videos were ever shared between the services.

Flock Safety's response

Flock Safety described the decision as mutual in its own statement: "We believe this decision allows both companies to best serve their respective customers and communities. Flock remains dedicated to supporting law enforcement agencies with tools that are fully configurable to local laws and policies."

Response

Congressional

Senator Ed Markey (D-MA), who had conducted oversight investigations into Ring since 2019, released a statement following the cancellation: "Amazon's decision to abandon its partnership with Flock is an important step in guarding against the ever-expanding network of surveillance technologies in this country." Markey added: "Amazon is finally getting the message: Enough is enough with the Orwellian surveillance state. This decision is a good first step, but it can't be the end. Amazon must go further and end facial recognition in its Ring doorbells—full stop."

Prior to the cancellation, on February 11, 2026, Markey had written to Amazon CEO Andy Jassy urging the company to discontinue Ring's "Familiar Faces" facial recognition feature, stating that the Super Bowl advertisement had "confirmed public opposition to Ring's constant monitoring and invasive image recognition algorithms."

Advocacy organizations

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) had published criticism of Ring's surveillance capabilities before the cancellation, warning that combining Ring's biometric features with neighborhood video searches could create significant privacy risks. EFF investigative researcher Beryl Lipton wrote: "It doesn't take much to imagine Ring eventually combining these two features: face recognition and neighborhood searches."

The American Civil Liberties Union raised concerns about the potential for footage to reach federal agencies despite Flock's stated policies. Senior Policy Counsel Chad Marlow stated that combining Ring doorbell cameras with Flock's license plate readers would "create a more detailed picture of where people go, when they leave, and when they return home."

Consumer response

Following the Super Bowl advertisement and news coverage of the Flock partnership, some Ring users publicly cancelled their subscriptions, returned devices, or disabled features. According to Peak Metrics data reported by CNBC, approximately 17% of brand-relevant conversations about Ring in the days following the advertisement included references to boycotts or cancellations.

On February 13–14, 2026, approximately 200–250 protesters gathered outside Amazon's headquarters in Seattle, organized by a coalition including Amazon Employees for Climate Justice and other groups. The protest called on Amazon to end the Ring–Flock partnership (which had already been cancelled), as well as other relationships with federal immigration enforcement agencies.

Ongoing concerns

The partnership's cancellation did not affect Ring's existing Community Requests program, which continues to operate through its partnership with Axon. Ring's Search Party and Familiar Faces features also remain active.

Privacy advocates have noted that Ring has previously made reforms in response to public pressure before later expanding surveillance capabilities through new mechanisms. The EFF characterized Ring's history as a recurring pattern of expansion, criticism, reform, and subsequent re-expansion.

See also

• Ring
• Flock Safety
• Amazon