Ring and Flock cancel camera partnership amid outcry over Super Bowl camera ad
- - Ring and Flock cancel camera partnership amid outcry over Super Bowl camera ad
February 14, 2026 at 2:53 AM
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FILE - A person pushes the doorbell on their Ring doorbell camera, July 16, 2019, in Wolcott, Conn. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill, File) (Jessica Hill/AP)
Amazon's Ring has canceled its partnership with surveillance company Flock Safety as pushback builds against Ring's plans for an AI-driven camera network.
In October 2025, Ring began a partnership with Flock, which develops license plate readers and surveillance cameras. The companies planned to expand an existing Ring program called Community Requests, where Ring owners can "choose to share specific videos with local police in response to requests for help with active investigations." That expansion was never launched, the companies say.
And last week Ring debuted "Search Party" in a Super Bowl ad, pitching consumers on an AI system that would use opted-in Ring cameras to locate lost pets.
But public sentiment toward the proposed pet-searching program quickly soured. The Electronic Frontier Foundation warned that such biometric surveillance was ripe for abuse. Sen. Edward Markey (D-MA) wrote a letter to Amazon, warning that the public was making it clear they opposed "Ring’s constant monitoring and invasive image recognition algorithms."
On February 12, Ring and Flock announced they had decided to end their partnership.
"Following a comprehensive review, we determined the planned Flock Safety integration would require significantly more time and resources than anticipated. As a result, we have made the joint decision to cancel the planned integration," Ring wrote.
"We believe this decision allows both companies to best serve their respective customers and communities," Flock wrote about the canceled program. "Flock remains dedicated to supporting law enforcement agencies with tools that are fully configurable to local laws and policies, and we continue to engage directly with public officials and community leaders."
Neither company cited the "Search Party" ad in their announcements.
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The backlash adds to recent pressure against tech companies for their contributions to surveillance programs and federal immigration enforcement goals.
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) wrote to Flock on October 2025, criticizing the company for allowing law enforcement and federal immigration agencies to access its records.
"I now believe that abuses of your product are not only likely but inevitable, and that Flock is unable and uninterested in preventing them," Sen. Wyden wrote.
And as Wired reported this week, Salesforce employees are urging CEO Marc Benioff to ban immigration agencies from using Salesforce software. They circulated a new letter after Benioff joked during a company event that ICE agents were monitoring the company's international employees.
Source: “AOL Breaking”
