WE WANT SAFETY FROM SURVEILLANCE-- STOP LAW ENFORCEMENT'S COOPERATION WITH RING

YOUR LOCAL MAYOR

Day by day, Amazon is extending its reach into everyday people’s lives through new technologies marketed as helpful and harmless. That cannot be farther from the truth. We are on the brink of a mass surveillance crisis and Amazon is ushering in this dangerous new era via Ring.

Ring, owned by Amazon, is a doorbell camera that allows users to monitor activity happening outside of the home and, many times, inside as well. Amazon not only has access to this footage, they own the content in perpetuity. But it gets worse-- Amazon makes insidious deals with local law enforcement agencies, rapidly targeting cities and writing marketing scripts for police officers to convince residents to buy Ring, often at a discounted rate or even for free.

Innovative technologies should not be used to increase policing at the expense of our privacy and freedom. Sign the petition to tell your mayor to put an end to shady partnerships between law enforcement and Ring.

To: YOUR LOCAL MAYOR
From: CA Matthews

Day by day, Amazon is extending its reach into everyday people’s lives through new technologies marketed as helpful and harmless. That cannot be farther from the truth. We are on the brink of a mass surveillance crisis and Amazon is ushering in this dangerous new era via Ring.

Ring, owned by Amazon, is a doorbell camera that allows the user to monitor activity through the Neighbor app, to see what’s happening outside of the home and many times, inside as well. Amazon not only has access to this footage, they own the content in perpetuity. But it gets worse-- Amazon makes insidious deals with local law enforcement agencies, rapidly targeting cities and writing marketing scripts for police officers to convince residents to buy Ring, often at a discounted rate or even for free.

Innovative technologies should not be used to increase policing at the expense of our privacy and freedom.

It has been proven time and time again that Black and brown communities suffer the most at the hands of technology bias. Algorithms that supposedly function without racial bias, in fact do. Facial recognition technology supposedly created to increase accuracy, often get it wrong-- especially among people of color. Pairing what we know about these problems in emergent technology with the widely reported flaws and hacks that have already happened with Ring, is clearly a recipe for disaster.

That is why I’m calling on you to take action. We cannot let this unnecessary landscape of surveillance further endanger those who are most vulnerable-- gig workers, over-policed Black and brown bodies, and low-income communities.

We know technology has rapidly become a fact of life and has often improved the function of society for the better, but that doesn’t mean Big Tech should have free reign over our right to privacy. We as your constituents want the safety of our community to come first. We have a responsibility to uphold our freedom and demand a higher standard of restraint from tech companies like Ring.

Our people are already overpoliced and over-surveilled through practices ranging from Stop and Frisk, to Counter Violent Extremism (CVE) which specifically targets MASA (Muslim Arab South Asian) communities. Technology has no place in further terrorizing people of color.

This is why we demand that you take a stand against law enforcement’s cooperation with Ring.

The future of technology is ours to shape. We need to set proper safety and privacy standards now or run the risk of living in a 21st century police state tomorrow.

In peace and solidarity,

ACRE