House Lawmakers Question Ring About Partnerships with Police

Monica Nickelsburg, GeekWire
Monica Nickelsburg is GeekWire’s Civic Editor, covering technology-driven solutions to urban challenges and the intersection of tech and politics. Before joining GeekWire, she worked for The Week, Forbes, and NBC. Monica holds a BA in journalism and history from New York University. Follow her @mnickelsburg and read her stories on GeekWire.
House Lawmakers Question Ring About Partnerships with Police
Photo courtesy of Wikicommons

Federal lawmakers are asking Amazon to provide details on Ring's partnerships with local police dating back to 2013. The U.S. House subcommittee on economic and consumer policy sent Amazon a letter with a series of questions about its dealings with law enforcement Wednesday.


Ring has been navigating scrutiny from the government and privacy advocates over its law enforcement program for months. The company develops smart doorbells and security cameras under the Amazon umbrella.

Raja Krishnamoorthi, chair of the subcommittee, asked Amazon to send records of all Ring agreements with local law enforcement agencies for the past seven years. The subcommittee also wants to know which of those agencies use Amazon's facial recognition software. Additional details on Ring's privacy safeguards, marketing, and other business practices were also requested.

"The subcommittee is examining traditional constitutional protections against surveilling Americans and the balancing of civil liberties and security interests, " Krishnamoorthi said in the letter.

The representative asked Amazon to respond by March 4.

This story originally appeared on GeekWire.

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