{"id":520835,"date":"2026-06-27T07:13:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-27T07:13:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/520835\/"},"modified":"2026-06-27T07:13:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T07:13:10","slug":"neighbourhood-watch-growing-unease-over-smart-doorbells","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/520835\/","title":{"rendered":"Neighbourhood Watch: Growing unease over smart doorbells"},"content":{"rendered":"

Given the potential $10m price-tag, a Super Bowl ad spot doesn’t tend to be the place to unveil a minor product or feature.<\/p>\n

Generally it\u2019s a sure sign that a company has high hopes for whatever it\u2019s selling.<\/p>\n

So when the CEO of Amazon\u2019s Ring, Jamie Siminoff, appeared on screens around the US in early February to unveil ‘Search Party\u2019, you knew they meant business.<\/p>\n

According to the ad, Search Party was a new of using the company\u2019s technology to help people find their lost dogs.<\/p>\n

The idea was that, instead of putting up \u2018Missing\u2019 posters or sharing photos on the local WhatsApp group, you could now upload a photo to the Ring app – along with a short description of the dog.<\/p>\n

Once you do that, information is automatically sent on to a network of Ring doorbells \u2013 which then use AI to start scanning for glimpses of your dog.<\/p>\n

Essentially, the system starts to monitor the video feeds from countless nearby Ring doorbells and security cameras to try to spot a glimpse of a dog that matches the information you\u2019ve given it. If it does, it can then notify and help you reunite with your furry friend.<\/p>\n

And the feature was automatically enabled for Amazon Ring users \u2013 as part of the \u2018Neighbours\u2019 feature that is designed to allow people to share alerts and warnings with other nearby Ring owners.<\/p>\n

And in the ad Jamie Siminoff announced that the feature was also available completely free \u2013 so you didn\u2019t even have to be a premium subscriber to avail of it. In fact you didn\u2019t even have to be a Ring user \u2013 others could upload their dog\u2019s details to the service without a camera.<\/p>\n

The All Seeing Eyes<\/p>\n

\"Portrait<\/p>\n

We don\u2019t know how many Ring doorbells Search Party might be availing of when trying to locate a canine companion.<\/p>\n

The company does not report how many devices have been sold \u2013 in the US alone or globally \u2013 and even total sales figures wouldn\u2019t necessarily tell you how many are actually in use at any one time.<\/p>\n

But there survey data suggests that Ring doorbells are quite common in the US at least.<\/p>\n

One suggests around one third of households in the US have some form of doorbell camera and, of those, the Ring doorbell is the most popular, with around a 40% share.<\/p>\n

If that is representative, and with some simple maths applied, it would suggest that roughly 14-15% of US homes are using a Ring doorbell today. That\u2019s around 20 million homes.<\/p>\n

There are a few caveats to add to that, though.<\/p>\n

One is that these kinds of doorbells tend to be more popular in urban areas rather than rural areas – so you might have some neighbourhoods with a much higher percentage, and then other parts where they\u2019re incredibly rare.<\/p>\n

Some users may also have their \u2018Neighbourhood\u2019 feature deactivated \u2013 meaning their camera is not meant to be available to \u2018Search Party\u2019.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also worth pointing out that while we think of smart doorbells when we think of Ring, they do make other kinds of cameras too \u2013 including more traditional external security cameras.<\/p>\n

(They also make indoor cameras to allow people to monitor a specific room\u2026 including the one where their dog is while they\u2019re away from home).<\/p>\n

Dog Gone<\/p>\n

\"picture<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s fair to say that Search Party hasn\u2019t gotten the reaction Amazon had hoped for.<\/p>\n

Very quickly the online discourse around the feature turned negative \u2013 as people accused the company of literally putting a cute and cuddly front onto something that could have a far darker application.<\/p>\n

Because if Search Party was capable of quietly activating a Ring camera to automatically search for something like a dog \u2013 probably without the actual owner of the camera even knowing \u2013 then it wasn\u2019t much of a stretch to imagine it using the same technology to search for something else. Or someone else.<\/p>\n

Many suggested such a tool could eventually be utilised by law enforcement to find wanted people \u2013 or simply scour an area for potential suspects.<\/p>\n

Critics argued that launching Search Party the way they did was a gentle way to acclimatise users to something that would otherwise seem off-putting and even dystopian.<\/p>\n

Pets were the way to do that, they say, ecause it dehumanises the feature. After all, people are probably less concerned about a dog\u2019s privacy than a human\u2019s. At the same time, pets tend to be a bit of a weakness for many, and dog-lovers are likely to be okay with something like this if they think it\u2019ll keep their pets happy and healthy.<\/p>\n

And while that might seem like a cynical stance, people\u2019s mistrust of Amazon\u2019s motives wasn\u2019t entirely unjustified.<\/p>\n

Because the announcement around Search Party came just a few months after Ring had announced a partnership with a company called Flock \u2013 which specialises in cameras for law enforcement and the likes of licence plate scanners.<\/p>\n

That partnership was supposed to allow Flock users \u2013 generally the likes of police departments \u2013 to request footage from Ring users, and make it easier for those users to share that if they chose to do so.<\/p>\n

And of course all of this was happening against a backdrop of the White House\u2019s immigration crackdown, and a number of controversies around the tactics being utilised by ICE.<\/p>\n

So it fed into a growing unease in the US around law enforcement and how they might take advantage of what people would consider to be private data.<\/p>\n

In the end \u2013 just days after the Super Bowl ad aired \u2013 Amazon announced that it and Flock had mutually agreed to cancel their planned partnership. They said that, as it hadn\u2019t actually begun, no footage had been shared between the two platforms.<\/p>\n

Search Party, though, is still very much available in the US.<\/p>\n

Not for EU<\/p>\n

This controversy is confined to the US at the moment \u2013 largely because Search Party is only available there right now.<\/p>\n

Realistically it\u2019s unlikely that it will see the light of day in Europe any time soon, if ever.<\/p>\n

For a start the EU has far more onerous rules and regulations around people\u2019s data than you tend to see in the US \u2013 built around the General Data Protection Regulation that big tech companies have regularly complained about.<\/p>\n

That places a far higher standard on what all companies do with users data \u2013 there\u2019s very little they can do without the express consent of the user, for example, and they have to be transparent about the data they hold on an individual.<\/p>\n

The rules also effectively prohibit untargeted surveillance \u2013 the kind that might involve having lots of cameras constantly watching just in case something or someone of interest comes into view.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile the EU\u2019s more recently-agreed AI Act also prohibits the use of automated scanning of surveillance footage.<\/p>\n

Both of those together make it very difficult to see a way in which Ring\u2019s Search Party feature becomes available here.<\/p>\n

Stranger danger<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

But there is a separate Ring feature that is available in Europe, and is causing controversy in its own right.<\/p>\n

The \u2018Familiar Faces\u2019 feature launched in the US last year and became available in certain EU countries earlier this year \u2013 including the UK, Germany and France.<\/p>\n

Part of Ring\u2019s premium subscription service, it uses AI facial recognition to, as the name suggests, identify faces that are familiar to users, and ones that are not. And it doesn\u2019t just activate when someone presses the doorbell \u2013 it can pick up on faces of people that come relatively close to camera.<\/p>\n

That does make it seem like it\u2019s in the same realm at least as Search Party.<\/p>\n

But the fact that it\u2019s done on a camera-by-camera basis is likely what makes the difference here in terms of it complying with GDPR. It\u2019s not networking all of the cameras in the way the Search Party is.<\/p>\n

That being said, there are concerns that the data the feature is gathering is being collated on some level.<\/p>\n

A few weeks ago a class action suit was filed in the US relating to Familiar Faces, alleging that Amazon is classifying and storing people\u2019s biometric data \u2013 their facial features \u2013 for up to six months, without necessarily getting their consent or explaining how that data might be used.<\/p>\n

And the case points to the fact that the feature is more restrictive in places like Portland, Oregon and Texas \u2013 which have tighter rules around gathering biometric data \u2013 as proof that it is gathering and storing more than it needs to.<\/p>\n

Amazon hasn\u2019t commented on that case and, as it was only filed a few weeks ago, it has yet to be tested within the legal system.<\/p>\n

Private Eye<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The features have once again raised questions about what Ring doorbells \u2013 and rival devices from the likes of Google, Yale, Tado and Arlo \u2013 can do, and who has access to that.<\/p>\n

In the past Amazon had partnered with US law enforcement to make it easier for them to request videos from users. At first that could be done as a blanket request \u2013 and later they were given the option of asking on the Neighbours app.<\/p>\n

Following pressure from privacy advocates, though, gaining access now requires a formal application \u2013 and, generally, a warrant.<\/p>\n

That is what applies in Ireland, too, meaning An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na do not have easy access to a person\u2019s camera feed or stored videos.<\/p>\n

Of course there are valid reasons why the likes of the Garda\u00ed might want to get access to camera footage in a particular area or belonging to a particular reason.<\/p>\n

And there is nothing to stop them from asking people directly for footage \u2013 or putting out appeals, as is often now a feature of Garda\u00ed communications relating to road traffic incidents or other investigations.<\/p>\n

Often people are only happy to share footage they\u2019ve captured, too.<\/p>\n

Local WhatsApp and Facebook groups are often full of clips that residents share, showing someone behaving suspiciously on their road.<\/p>\n

Big Brother is Watching <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The controversy does also highlight just how surrounded we are by cameras nowadays.<\/p>\n

Not just camera doorbells, but also the likes of dashcams, smartphones and smart glasses.<\/p>\n

Because while Amazon\u2019s Ring is the best-known provider, there are many others selling camera doorbells and other security cameras nowadays.<\/p>\n

And when an individual \u2013 or even everyone on a particular road – has a security camera \u2013 the attraction and use case is clear, while the downside is relatively small.<\/p>\n

But what\u2019s perhaps most important to these modern camera is the fact that they tend to be networked.<\/p>\n

When they\u2019re all connected back to their own servers \u2013 and potentially to each other \u2013 and they\u2019re all able to store data for prolonged periods of time, the potential privacy implications suddenly become huge.<\/p>\n

If pieced together, it means that there is now far more potential for surveillance than the State would ever be capable of through things like CCTV.<\/p>\n

That has also led to concerns about the growth of what are called \u2018intelligence as a service\u2019 companies. In the past you might expect that the gathering of intelligence was done by State agencies \u2013 like the Garda\u00ed \u2013 but now huge amounts of data is essentially being gathered by private firms, via the products that consumers are using.<\/p>\n

And that may prove to be very valuable in many circumstances.<\/p>\n

This means that it is more important than ever to ensure the right safeguards and regulations are in place, to ensure people\u2019s very understandable wish to improve their security and peace of mind is balanced out against everyone\u2019s right to privacy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Given the potential $10m price-tag, a Super Bowl ad spot doesn’t tend to be the place to unveil…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":520836,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,61,60],"class_list":["post-520835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=520835"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520835\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/520836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=520835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=520835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=520835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}