Amazon engineer calls for Ring to be 'shut down immediately' over privacy concerns

[steven36]

• An Amazon software engineer named Max Eliaser said the home-security company Ring should be "shut down immediately."
• "The privacy issues are not fixable with regulation and there is no balance that can be struck," Eliaser said.
• Eliaser's comments were part of a post in which hundreds of Amazon employees shared their views on various company policies and products.

 

 

An Amazon engineer criticized the home-security camera company Ring, saying it should be "shut down immediately."

 

"The deployment of connected home security cameras that allow footage to be queried centrally are simply not compatible with a free society," Max Eliaser, an Amazon software-development engineer, said in a post published on Medium on Sunday. "The privacy issues are not fixable with regulation and there is no balance that can be struck. Ring should be shut down immediately and not brought back."

 

Eliaser's comments are striking because Ring is owned by Amazon, whose corporate employees rarely speak out against the company. (Amazon bars employees from speaking about the company without prior approval.)

 

Amazon and Ring did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

 

Amazon acquired Ring, which makes video doorbells and home security cameras, in 2018. The camera company has recently faced scrutiny over privacy issues, mostly around its agreements with law-enforcement agencies and problems with hackers accessing the devices.

 

Some of Ring's own employees have also abused access to customer feeds, the company told lawmakers recently.

 

The Medium post quoting Eliaser included critical comments from hundreds of Amazon employees about various Amazon policies and products. It was published Sunday by the advocacy group Amazon Employees for Climate Justice and meant to protest the company's external-communications policy.

 

Source