Cities join Amazon in cutting ties with license-plate reader Flock following public outcry. ‘Your privacy is totally fine,’ says Ring CEO

What started as a Super Bowl ad about finding lost dogs ended in a multicity contract termination for Flock, not because its technology was featured in the ad, but because of growing public sentiment as a result.

In a controversial yet viral ad for Amazon’s Ring that premiered during the Super Bowl, a user uploaded a photo of a lost dog so participating homes in Ring’s Search Party feature can scan their footage to find that lost dog. What started as a heartwarming story of reunification culminated in millions of Americans shocked at how “creepy” the tech was, and how it could be manipulated into nefarious purposes, such as tracking individuals and finding their current whereabouts. 

The ad portrayed Ring’s Search Party feature, notably different than the Community Requests feature Ring and Flock had initially partnered on to integrate technologies. Ring terminated its contract with Flock Safety, an AI-powered license reader used by (or, formerly for some) police precincts across the country. Flock, a company that sells networks of roadside cameras and software to police departments, businesses, and neighborhoods to identify vehicles and feed that data into searchable law-enforcement databases, is active in more than 5,000 U.S. cities. The software scans license plates and uses integrated video tools to log plates, time, and location, then alerts police when a vehicle matc...