We reported yesterday that there was an accusation that surveillance videos had been seen by Ring employees to an unlimited extent. Ring contacted us with a statement.
The accusation against Ring and your handling of videos can be read here.
Ring’s statement in the original wording is as follows:
“We take the privacy and security of our customers’ personal information extremely seriously. In order to improve our service, we view and annotate certain Ring video recordings. These recordings are sourced exclusively from publicly shared Ring videos from the Neighbors app (in accordance with our terms of service), and from a small fraction of Ring users who have provided their explicit written consent to allow us to access and utilize their videos for such purposes. Ring employees do not have access to livestreams from Ring products.
We have strict policies in place for all our team members. We implement systems to restrict and audit access to information. We hold our team members to a high ethical standard and anyone in violation of our policies faces discipline, including termination and potential legal and criminal penalties. In addition, we have zero tolerance for abuse of our systems and if we find bad actors who have engaged in this behavior, we will take swift action against them.”
In summary, the company states that the handling of personal data is taken very seriously and that the employees are committed to high ethical standards. In addition, only videos for which the user has given his written consent or which have been made publicly accessible by “Neighbors App” would be used as a source for software improvement.
In addition, the following is highlighted:
„Ring does not provide and never has provided employees with access to livestreams of Ring devices.
As mentioned in our statement, Ring employees only have access to recordings that are sourced exclusively from publicly shared Ring videos from the Neighbors app (in accordance with our terms of service), and from a small fraction of Ring users who have provided their explicit written consent to allow us to access and utilize their videos for such purposes. Again, Ring employees do not have access to livestreams.“
Ring emphasizes that employees have never had access to livestreams from customers unless they have given permission in writing or released it via “Neighbors App”.
Now you have also heard the other side. We think it’s always good and necessary to listen to the other side, that’s what happened here. As it seems, the crux lies in the Neighbors App and the permission to make the videos available for Ring. Legally probably flawless you should take the time to read the terms of use before activating it.
