Over several years, consumer advocacy groups criticized Ring’s RFA program, with many asking CR and other product review outlets to stop recommending Ring products. (CR’s evaluations are based on its own independent product testing, and we did not change our ratings.)
In 2021, the company completed a two-year audit of its Neighbors network with the New York University School of Law Policing Project and made changes to the RFA tool in response. The program replaced Ring’s previous practice of sending private emails to users on behalf of law enforcement with public postings in the Neighbors app, saying that it brought more transparency to the process.
Consumer Reports asked Ring why the program was being revived. “When something isn’t working perfectly for our neighbors, we fix it,” a company spokesperson said by email. “The old system needed improvements, so we rebuilt it. Community Request has stronger privacy protections, better transparency, and still keeps control in our neighbors’ hands.”
Federal law enforcement agencies such as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement are not eligible for participation in the program, according to the spokesperson. Local law enforcement must be verified by Amazon and be users of the Axon digital evidence management system.
Some consumer advocates say the new program threatens to erode civil liberties. “We’re incredibly disappointed to see that Ring, which had been pushed to make some very substantial reforms for the betterment of our society, would choose this moment, where civil liberties are being infringed by police and the government with abandon, to bring back the most invasive form of this technology,” says Matthew Guariglia, senior policy analyst for the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
