The Times – Police partnerships with Amazon over front-door surveillance devices

Big Brother Watch Team / September 8, 2019

Several UK police forces have entered commercial partnerships with Amazon to provide or give out thousands of Ring doorbell home surveillance devices to members of the public. There are serious concerns over the data Amazon will collect and the access it has to individual devices’ live video footage, as in the past employees have accessed live, round the clock streams. The devices also extend the surveillance state into people’s homes, properties and onto residential streets.

Our legal and policy officer, Griff Ferris, said:

“This chilling Amazon-sponsored police project to extend the surveillance state onto people’s property should be stopped.

“These front-door surveillance cameras can record entire residential streets and are planned to use facial recognition. Residents would be right to be concerned about their data being collected by Amazon and how it will be used.

“Amazon is aggressively attempting to expand its reach into people’s personal lives via home surveillance devices, collecting huge amounts of personal information, and the police seem only too happy to promote this commercial data-gathering”

The Times – Police and Amazon build ‘surveillance state’ with free all‑seeing doorbells

Also:

The Daily Mail – Police forces are handing out free Amazon Ring doorbell cameras to thousands of households in ‘police project to extend the surveillance state’ that ‘must be stopped’

The Sun – Police team up with Amazon Ring to hand out free camera doorbells worth £89 to thousands of households across Britain

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