But Amazon is facing a new review of its growing work with the police by Ring, Amazon`s own gateway and the surveillance company that has been working for years to be called a law enforcement friend. Civil rights activists say, Ring and his accompanying social network Neighbors allows disproportionate surveillance and targeting blacks. It also allows police to access huge amounts of video material as long as users of the ring give them permission. Groups such as MediaJustice and Athena, an anti-Amazon coalition, say the company should cut ties with law enforcement to support the Black Lives Matter movement through measures. Meanwhile, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a data protection group, is issuing a petition calling on Amazon Ring to end its partnerships with the police, raising the possibility that circular cameras could be used to monitor protests across the country. «If the police ask every citizen to put a camera on their door and access it, we could all back off,» said Andrew Guthrie Ferguson, a law professor and author of «The Rise of Big Data Policing.» «Unless otherwise required by law, contracting parties may not disclose the terms of this program or information that is classified as confidential or reasonably considered confidential given the nature of the information or the circumstances surrounding its disclosure,» the agreement states. She said this was particularly worrying in light of reports that some police departments, through agreements with the company, encouraged the use of circular cameras by giving them in raffles or as a reward. Dozens of police forces across the country have teamed up with Ring, but so far the exact terms of these partnerships have remained unknown. A Memorandum of Understanding signed between Ring and the Lakeland, Florida police, and emails received through a public record request show that Ring uses local police as a de facto advertising company. The police have a contractual obligation to «support the Lakeland community through public relations on the platform in order to encourage the launch of the platform/app.» Amazon`s security service, Ring, now works with 405 law enforcement forces in the United States. Today, Ring released a map showing all the police departments he works with, as well as details on when each partnership began. Hundreds of listed departments have access to the Rings Neighborhood Portal, which allows them to request recordings of Rings video door ringtones.

«Amazon Ring`s policies are an open door for privacy and civil liberties violations,» Markey said in a press release. «If you are an adult playing with your dog or child on the sidewalk, don`t worry that Ring products are accumulating records of you and that law enforcement may keep these recordings indefinitely or share these recordings with third parties. Amazon`s ring is marketed to keep families safe, but data protection rights are at risk under company guidelines. A drone flies in Springfield. (Don Treeger/The Springfield Republican) Pickering said his agency was working with his lawyer to classify the 40 or so cameras Ring had given them as a legal gift. But some officers said they were uncomfortable with the gift, because it could be designed for the police to extend an official label to a private company.