The Washington Post - 29.08.2019

THURSDAY, AUGUST 29 , 2019. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ RE K 7 A

Ring officials have stepped up

their sharing of video from moni-

tored doorsteps to help portray

the d evices a s theft deterrents and

friendly home companions. In o ne

recent example, a father in Massa-

chusetts can be seen using his

Ring Video Doorbell’s speakers to

talk to h is daughter’s d ate while he

was at work, saying, “I still get to

see your face, but you don’t get to

see mine.”

The company is also pushing to

market itself as a potent defense

for c ommunity peace of mind, say-

ing its cameras offer “proactive

home and neighborhood security

in a way no other company has

before.” The company is hiring

video producers and on-camera

hosts to develop user testimonials

and videos marketing the Ring

brand, with a job listing stating

that applicants should deliver

ideas with an “approachable yet

authoritative tone.”

Rotello, who runs his depart-

ment’s neighborhood-watch pro-

gram, said Ring’s local growth has

had a n interesting side effect: Peo-

ple now believe “crime is rampant

in Frisco,” now that they see it all

mapped and detailed in a mobile

app. He has had to inform people,

he said, that “the crime has always

been there; you’re just now start-

ing to figure it out.”

He added, however, that the

technology has become a potent

awareness tool for crime preven-

tion, and he said he appreciates

how the technology has inspired

in residents a newfound vigilance.

“Would you rather live in an

‘ignorance is bliss’ type of world?”

he said. “Or would you rather

know what’s going on?”

That h yper-awareness of murky

and sometimes-distant criminal

threats has been widely criticized

by privacy advocates, who argue

that Ring has sought to turn police

officers into surveillance-system

salespeople and capitalize on

neighborhood fears.

“It’s a business model based in

paranoia,” said Evan Greer, deputy

director of the digital advocacy

group Fight for the Future.

“They’re doing what Uber did for

taxis, but for surveillance camer-

as, by making them more user-

friendly.... It’s a privately run

surveillance dragnet built outside

the democratic process, but

they’re marketing it as just an-

other product, just another app.”

More powerful tools

Ring’s expansion also has led

some to question its plans. The

company applied for a facial-rec-

ognition patent last year that

co uld alert when a person desig-

nated as “suspicious” was caught

on camera. The cameras do not

currently use facial-recognition

software, and a spokeswoman

said the application was designed

only to explore future possibilities.

Amazon, Ring’s parent compa-

ny, has developed facial-recogni-

tion software, called Rekognition,

that is used by police nationwide.

The technology is improving all

the time: This month, Amazon’s

Web Services arm announced that

it had upgraded the face-scanning

system’s accuracy at estimating a

person’s emotion and was even

perceptive enough to track “a new

emotion: ‘Fear.’ ”

For now, the Ring systems’ po-

lice expansion is earning early

community support. Mike Diaz, a

member of the city c ouncil in C hu-

la Vista, Calif., where police have

partnered with Ring, s aid the cam-

eras could be an important safe-

guard for some local neighbor-

hoods where residents are tired of

dealing with crime. He’s not both-

ered, h e added, b y the concerns h e

has heard a bout how the c ompany

is partnering with police in hopes

of selling more cameras.

“That’s America, right?” Diaz

said. “Who doesn’t want to p ut b ad

guys away?”

[email protected]

being alerted to a suspicious per-

son.” (A Ring spokeswoman later

said this example would be re-

moved from Neighbors because it

does not pass the s ervice’s commu-

nity guidelines, which require “an

attempted criminal activity or un-

usual behavior that is cause for

concern.”)

Aggressive push with police

Ring has pushed a ggressively t o

secure new police allies. Some po-

lice officials said they first met

with Ring officials at a law-en-

forcement conference, a fter which

the company flew representatives

to police headquarters to walk

officers through the technology

and help them prepare for its de-

ployment.

The company has urged police

officials to use social media to

encourage homeowners to use

Neighbors, and Pickering said the

Norfolk department had posted a

special code to its Facebook page

to encourage residents to sign on.

Ring has offered discounts to

cities and community groups that

spend public or taxpayer-support-

ed money on the cameras. The

firm also has given free c ameras to

police departments that can be

distributed to local homeowners.

The company said it began phas-

ing out the giveaway program for

new partners earlier this year.

Pickering said his agency is

working with its city attorney to

classify the roughly 40 cameras

Ring gave them as a legal dona-

tion. But some officers said they

were uncomfortable with the gift,

because it could be construed as

the police extending an official

seal of approval to a private com-

pany.

“We don’t w ant t o push a partic-

ular product,” said Radd Rotello,

an officer with the Frisco Police

Department in Te xas, which has

partnered with Ring. “We as the

police department are not doing

that. T hat’s not our place.”

Ring has for months sought to

keep key details of its police-part-

nership program confidential, but

public records from agencies na-

tionwide have revealed glimpses

of the company’s close work with

local police. In a June email to a

New Jersey police officer first re-

ported by the online publication

Motherboard, a Ring representa-

tive suggested ways officers could

improve their “opt-in rate” f or vid-

eo requests, including greater in-

teraction with users on the Neigh-

bors app.

“The more users you have the

more useful information you can

collect,” the representative wrote.

Ring says it offers training and

education materials to its police

partners so they can accurately

represent the service’s work.

recorded visitors include lizards,

deer, mantises, snakes and snoop-

ing raccoons.)

Bringing safety or distrust?

Ring users’ ability to report peo-

ple as suspicious has been criti-

cized for its p otential to contribute

to racial profiling and heightened

community distrust. Last Hallow-

een in Southern Maryland, a Ring

user living near a middle school

posted a video of two boys ringing

a doorbell with the title: “Early

trick or treat, or are they up to no

good?”

The video, which has been

viewed in the N eighbors app more

than 5,700 t imes, inspired a rash of

comments: Some questioned the

children’s motives, while others

said they looked like harmless

kids. “Those cuties? You’re joking,

right?” one commenter said. After

The Post shared this video with

Ring, the company removed it,

saying it no l onger fits the service’s

community guidelines because

“there is no objective reason stat-

ed that w ould put t heir behavior i n

question.”

Since formally beginning its

Neighbors police partnerships

with officers i n Greenfield, Wis., in

March 2018, Ring has extended

the program to 401 police depart-

ments and sheriff’s offices nation-

wide, from northwest Washington

state to Key West, Fla., company

data show. Shortly after this story

was p ublished o nline, Ring f ound-

er Jamie Siminoff released a blog

post saying that count had a lready

expanded, to 405 agencies.

The partnerships cover vast ex-

panses of major states — with 31

agencies in California, 57 in Te xas

and 67 in Florida — and blanket

entire regions beneath Ring’s

camera network, including about

a dozen agencies each in the met-

ropolitan areas surrounding Chi-

cago, Dallas, Detroit, Kansas City,

Los Angeles and Phoenix.

Sgt. William Pickering, an offi-

cer with the Norfolk Police De-

partment in Virginia, which is

working with Ring, compared the

system’s expansion to the onset of

DNA evidence in criminal cases —

a momentous c apability, u nlocked

by new technology, that helps po-

lice gain the upper hand.

“We have so many photojour-

nalists out there, and they’re right

there when things happen, and

they’re able to take photos and

videos all the time. As a law en-

forcement agency, that is of great

value to us,” Pickering said.

“When a neighbor posts a suspi-

cious individual who walked

across their front lawn, that allows

them at t hat very moment to s hare

that in real time with anyone

who’s been watching. Now we

have everybody in the community

time range and local area, up to

half-a-square-mile wide, and get

Ring to send an automated email

to all users within that range,

alongside a case n umber a nd mes-

sage from police.

The user can c lick to share their

Ring videos, review them before

sharing, decline or, at the bottom

of the email, unsubscribe from

future footage-sharing requests.

“If you would like to take direct

action to make your neighbor-

hood safer, this is a great opportu-

nity,” an email supplied by Ring

states.

Ring says police officers don’t

have access to live video feeds and

aren’t told which homes use Ring

cameras or how homeowners re-

sponded unless the users consent.

Officers could previously access a

“heat map” showing the general

density of where Ring devices

were in use, but the company said

it has removed that feature from

the video request because it was

deemed “no longer useful.”

Ring said it would not provide

user video footage in response to a

subpoena but would comply if

company officials were presented

with a search warrant or thought

they had a legal obligation to pro-

duce the content. “Ring does not

disclose customer information in

response to government demands

unless we’re required to do so to

comply with a legally valid and

binding order,” t he company said

in a statement.

Ring users consent to the com-

pany giving r ecorded video to “law

enforcement authorities, govern-

ment officials and/or third par-

ties” if the company thinks it’s

necessary to comply with “legal

process o r reasonable government

request,” i ts terms of service state.

The company says it a lso c an store

footage deleted by the user to

comply with legal obligations.

The high-resolution cameras

can p rovide detailed images of not

just a front doorstep but also

homes across the street and down

the block. Ring users have further

expanded their home monitoring

by installing the motion-detecting

cameras along driveways, decks

and rooftops.

Some officers said they now

look for Ring doorbells, notable

for their glowing circular buttons,

when investigating crimes or can-

vassing neighborhoods, in case

they need to pursue legal maneu-

vers later to obtain the video.

Ring users have shared videos

of package thieves, burglars and

vandals in the hope of naming,

shaming or apprehending the per-

petrators, but they’ve also done so

for people — possibly salespeople,

petitioners or strangers in need of

help — who knock on their doors

and leave without incident. (Other

focused companion app. “We’ve
had a lot of success in terms of
deterring crime and solving
crimes that would otherwise not
be solved as quickly.”
But legal experts and privacy
advocates have voiced alarm
about the company’s eyes-every-
where ambitions and increasingly
close r elationship w ith police, say-
ing the program could threaten
civil liberties, turn residents into
informants, and subject innocent
people, including those whom
Ring users have flagged as “suspi-
cious,” t o greater surveillance and
potential risk.
“If the police demanded every
citizen put a camera at their door
and give officers access to it, we
might all recoil,” said Andrew
Guthrie Ferguson, a law professor
and author of “The Rise of Big
Data Policing.”
By tapping into “a perceived
need for more self-surveillance
and by playing on consumer fears
about crime and security,” he add-
ed, Ring has found “a clever work-
around for the development of a
wholly new surveillance network,
without the kind of scrutiny that
would happen if it was coming
from the police or government.”

Data for a social network

Begun in 2013 as a line of Inter-
net-connected “smart doorbells,”
Ring has grown into one of the
nation’s biggest household names
in home security. The company,
based i n Santa Monica, Calif., sells
a line of alarm systems, floodlight
cameras and motion-detecting
doorbell cameras starting at $99,
as well as monthly “Ring Protect”
subscriptions that allow home-
owners to save videos o r have their
systems professionally monitored
around the clock.
Ring users are alerted when
their doorbell chimes or their
camera senses motion, and they
can view their camera’s live feed
from afar using a mobile app.
Users also have the option of shar-
ing footage to Ring’s public social
network, Neighbors, which allows
people to report local crimes, dis-
cuss suspicious events, and share
videos from their Ring cameras,
cellphones and other devices.
The Neighbors feed operates
like an endless stream of local
suspicion, combining official po-
lice reports compiled by Neigh-
bors’ “ News Te am” with what Ring
calls “ hyperlocal” posts from near-
by homeowners reporting stolen
packages, mysterious noises,
questionable visitors and missing
cats. About a third of Neighbors
posts are for “suspicious activity”
or “unknown visitors,” t he compa-
ny said. (About a quarter of posts
are crime-related; a fifth are for
lost pets.)
Users, which the company calls
“neighbors,” are anonymous on
the app, but the public video does
not obscure faces or voices from
anyone caught on camera. Partici-
pating police officers can chat di-
rectly with users on the Neighbors
feed and get alerts when a home-
owner posts a message from inside
their watched jurisdiction. The
Neighbors app also alerts users
when a new police force partners
up, saying, “Your Ring Neighbor-
hood just got a whole l ot stronger.”
To seek out Ring video that has
not been publicly shared, officers
can use a special “Neighbors Por-
tal” map interface to designate a

DOORBELL FROM A

BY TAYLOR TELFORD

The world’s largest hotel chain

is checking out of the tiny toiletry

game.

Marriott International an-

nounced Wednesday that it would

be phasing out miniature bottles

of shampoo, conditioner and bath

gel in f avor of larger, pump-topped

bottles at its 7 ,000 properties

worldwide by December 2 020.

The company estimates the move

will keep 1.7 million pounds of

plastic — or about 500 million t iny

bottles — from ending up in land-

fills e ach y ear.

“This is our second global ini-

tiative aimed at reducing single-

use plastics in just over a year,

which underscores how impor-

tant we believe it is to continuous-

ly find ways to reduce our hotels’

environmental impact. It’s a huge

priority for us,” Marriott chief ex-

ecutive Arne Sorenson said in a

statement. “Our guests are look-

ing to us to make changes that will

create a meaningful difference for

the environment while not sacri-

ficing the quality service and ex-

perience they expect from our ho-

tels.”

The shift reflects a wider reck-

oning w ith w aste within the hospi-

tality industry, where the empha-

sis on convenience and sanitation

has long meant that just about

anything a guest might need

would be single-use and plastic-

wrapped. And even if companies

don’t elect to cut back on waste,

some may soon be forced to: Cali-

fornia lawmakers are weighing a

bill that would ban hotels from

using small plastic bottles for

guests starting in 2023, and the

European Union is slated to ban a

wide array of single-use plastic

items by 2021.

The Bethesda, Md.-based com-

pany’s announcement follows

that of rival hospitality juggernaut

InterContinental Hotels Group,

which made the same move in

July, and other giants, like Hyatt,

which is testing bulk toiletries in

certain properties. Last year, the

Walt Disney Co. dispensed with

little plastic bottles on its cruise

ships a nd at i ts resorts.

Marriott, which counts

Sheraton, Ritz-Carlton and Wes-

tin among its many brands, has

been testing larger toiletry bottles

since January 2018. About 1,000 o f

Marriott’s hotels have made the

switch, and reaction from guests

has b een very positive, t he c ompa-

ny s aid.

Plastic takes more than 400

years to decompose, taking a toll

on the environment, especially

considering that about 8 .8 million

tons of plastic a re dumped into the

world’s oceans each year. And

while hundreds of millions of

pounds of plastic are produced

annually, o nly a small fraction of it

is recycled.

Marriott’s pivot away from tiny

toiletries feeds i nto the c ompany’s

larger efforts to limit its environ-

mental impact. The company

aims to reduce i ts l andfill waste by

45 percent and responsibly source

its top 10 product purchase cate-

gories, including guest amenities,

by 2025. Last year, the company

ditched plastic straws and s tirrers

— a move Sorenson believes

guests will support, despite some

inevitable kvetching.

“Human n ature is what it is and

we resist change,” Sorenson told

the Associated Press. “But people

understand that this is so much

better.”

[email protected]

Marriott to

ditch small

plastic bottles

for toiletries

Doorbell

cams build

network for

surveillance

JESSICA HILL/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Ernie Field pushes the Ring doorbell at his home in Wolcott, Conn. The company says its technology and

police partnerships provide a modern-day neighborhood watch. Critics say the company is preying on fear.

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