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That’s not what is under discussion here. The topic is this strange deal between Ring/Amazon and local police depts.
You are doing first-order thinking – looking at the surface of this issue.
I am attempting to point out how to do second-order thinking on this issue – which entails asking, “What are the unintended consequences?”
There are multiple harms in the making with this Amazon/Ring/local police deal.
I am perfectly able to do second order thinking. Above I did write that there’s always going to be a bad guy and even a crooked cop. Through my own personal, maybe narrow lens and knowledge of my town, my state, and the local police and judges, I really still don’t see an issue with this. There can absolutely be some unintended ramifications and that can be whether you are one of the owners of these cameras or not. We come from very different areas where is mine is probably pretty small and safe compared to a larger City area that has lots of violence. So of course our viewpoints would differ.
I know this thread is all about the writers complaint that the police can use the Ring camera for surveillance but there really is a good side to this. Not long ago, a pair of young adults were captured on a ring video pouring a flammable liquid on the windshield of a van then lighting it. The fire spread to the house where a family of four were sleeping. The family managed to escape the home but they wouldn’t have had to if the two young adults didn’t light the fire in the first place. Because of the video, at least one suspect was caught, put in jail, with charges of arson. Perhaps you are so paranoid about police surveillance that you don’t want to have a Ring doorbell or perhaps you just object to Amazon making any money from its sale, I don’t know but there are two sides of this perspective.
Of course there are two sides. The question everyone needs to ask themselves is if the good outweighs the bad. Is added security worth giving up your civil liberty inch by inch? Because that’s what’s happening.
Reading some of the posts in this topic makes me glad I live where I live, and not in the U.S.
(puts tin hat on 
)
JF
The title of this post is not correct. Amazon does not REQUIRE anything of the sort.
RR
In my area, you can CHOOSE to sign up for sharing of your video. Of course any video surveillance by any one/any organization can be subpoenaed .
I purchased my Ring & will sign up for the community watch-type feature. To me the benefits outweigh the risks.
In today’s world we are monitored constantly. I’m not sure that this is that much of a greater violation of privacy.
Cell phones: location, where you go, sites you search, who you call & text, what you text.
Social media—definitely lots of sharing there.
If you work in an office, when you arrive & go are recorded, if you wear a badge with a panic button-your location is known, computers you log onto - where & what you do
Shopping—video surveillance at registers & more
Google earth pictures of your home…
This list could go on forever. The idea of personal privacy is a dream.
They require it in order for the police dept to get the free equipment. Did you read the full story in the link?
They do not REQUIRE that you or anyone else participate.
I do not need to read the link, I have looked at the ring app and decided not to participate.
RR
It’s a idea worth protecting but sadly it is being eroded by technology is ways that we wouldn’t have been able to fathom in 1787. What the founders knew then and what is still true is that the abuse of police powers is a problem. I won’t be helping the police do their job.
That said, there are cameras everywhere and sharing everywhere. Already people post video in the neighborhood Ring sharing feature. Perfectly innocent looking people get their pictures shared all the time with dire warnings of watching out for these suspicious people. No one can approach any Ring camera without the risk of some paranoid owner posting the video.
Like any other technology, there are good uses and bad uses and we must be ever thoughtful and vigilant about it.
I was looking at my Ring videos today and noticed how the dads in the families that stay at my listings all have the same look when they arrive - resigned/exhausted Sherpa, bringing up the rear and hauling all the other family members’ gear inside. It’s so consistent, my daughter suggested we make a video montage out of them. 