Caroline Haskins
Police Promised Witnesses Free Ring Surveillance Cameras If They Testified Against Neighbors
2 Days Ago The police department of El Monte, CA started a “Ring Reward Program” about a month before it entered a partnership with Ring.
2 Days Ago No one knows how TikTok’s For You page algorithm works, so users have taken it upon themselves to construct their own theories.
8 Days Ago Ring helped people form private ‘Digital Neighborhood Watches’ where they report ‘suspicious activity’ in exchange for free Ring products and discounts, according to a presentation obtained by Motherboard.
8 Days Ago Home security trade organization The Monitoring Association said that it is troubled by reports of Ring partnerships with law enforcement that are designed to promote Ring products.
9 Days Ago An interactive map, researched and compiled as a personal project by an incoming college senior, gives the most comprehensive view of Ring’s partnerships with law enforcement to date.
9 Days Ago How does Ring partner with police? Are there privacy concerns with Ring doorbells? What is the Neighbors app? This, and other things we’ve learned from 1,400 pages of public records.
Caroline Haskins
Revealed: The Secret Scripts Amazon Gives to Cops to Promote Ring Surveillance Cameras
11 Days Ago Documents obtained by Motherboard reveal that Ring provides 46 standardized comments that cops can post on social media, and several documents with scripted responses to possible questions from the public.
12 Days Ago Ring, Amazon’s home surveillance company, is teaching police how to convince residents to share camera footage with them.
15 Days Ago Documents obtained by Motherboard show that Ring uses partnership and promotional agreements in order to contractually obligate public officials to promote its products.
17 Days Ago People can sign a petition urging their local government to forbid police partnerships with surveillance companies like Amazon’s Ring.
19 Days Ago Ring’s partnerships with law enforcement could be far more more widespread than previously reported.
23 Days Ago The Lakeland, Florida police department is required to “encourage adoption” of Ring products as part of a secret agreement with the company.
24 Days Ago Turnkey, a collaboration between Amazon and several real estate companies, involves giving people up to $5,000 in Amazon credits and discounts on Amazon smart products if customers buy a house.
25 Days Ago Point-of-view or POV videos are TikTok’s chameleon genre that give creators room to express themselves, and give TikTok room to come into its own.
26 Days Ago Documents obtained by Motherboard show that NYPD social media officers are explicitly instructed to “be funny” in order to “build trust” on official social media channels.
31 Days Ago FaceApp’s privacy policy is bad. Its policy isn’t uniquely bad because it’s a Russian company.
31 Days Ago Oakland just joined San Francisco, CA and Somerville, MA in banning the use of facial recognition.
32 Days Ago Amazon is offering 30 to 40 percent discounts on Ring surveillance products for Prime Day. Think carefully about these products before going through with a purchase.
33 Days Ago People are claiming that they plan on boycotting Amazon Prime Day. Motherboard spoke with four of these people and asked why they’re boycotting.
33 Days Ago An Amazon spokesperson said in an email to Motherboard that Prime Day is unfairly exploited by “critics” and “unions.”
36 Days Ago Motherboard obtained a Palantir user manual through a public records request, and it gives unprecedented insight into how the company logs and tracks individuals.
36 Days Ago Company contracts with a fusion center reveal that nearly 8 million people in northern California are subject to Palantir surveillance tools, a Motherboard investigation finds.
38 Days Ago The ‘Transformation Dept.’ installed toilet plungers as DIY bike lane barriers in New York City.
39 Days Ago Amazon created package loss data heat maps and performed “data analysis” that helped a police department plan and carry out a package theft sting operation.
45 Days Ago Every Fourth of July, an internet rumor claims that panicked animal parents abandon their young after fireworks displays. There’s no evidence to back this up.