Amazon Ring — 60s explainer (D01)

01 / 08 · Setup

RING.

home security

02 / 08 · Tension

SECURITY ? OR THE OPPOSITE.

03 / 08 · Reveal

RING UKRAINE

staff with full access to customer footage

04 / 08 · Mechanism

camera → S3 plaintext → Ukraine team + US police

Ring Doorbell

10M+ devices in US

"Request for Assistance"

Ring Ukraine + police

2,000+ departments · no warrant

20,000+ recordings handed to police without a warrant (2020–2022)

05 / 08 · Scale

10M CAMERAS. 2,000 POLICE DEPARTMENTS.

2013 launch 2018 Amazon buys 2023 FTC fine

10M+

Ring US

2,000+

police departments

$5.8M

USD FTC

06 / 08 · Disclosure

JANUARY 2019

Sam Biddle

The Intercept

Motherboard · Vice

hackers shouted at children

FTC

investigation

staff "double-clicking" = customer cameras

07 / 08 · Penalty

$5.8M

FTC · May 2023

Forced data deletion. Policy change: Neighbors off by default, E2EE opt-in. Still: police partnerships.

08 / 08

RING

You are not the only one watching what is at your door. Police. Staff in Kyiv. Hackers.
Case D01 in Big Tech Files.