Gizmodo published a report on Dec. 9 which shows just how extensive Ring’s network of home security devices is. The publication acquired data from nearly 65,800 individual posts shared by users of the Neighbors app — Ring’s crime alert app, in which users share the location and video from their Ring cameras of crimes in their area.
“The posts, which read back 500 days from the point of collection, offer extraordinary insight into the proliferation of Ring video surveillance across American neighborhoods and raise important questions about the privacy trade-offs of a consumer-driven network of surveillance cameras controlled by one of the world’s most powerful corporations,” the story read.
Gizmodo reporters found that the network traffic of the Neighbors app includes hidden geographic coordinates that are connected to each post, including latitude and longitude with up to six decimals of precision. Using these hidden coordinates, Gizmodo was able to produce detailed maps depicting the locations of tens of thousands of Ring cameras across 15 cities, including Washington D.C., Los Angeles, Seattle and Chicago. The maps only show a fraction of Ring’s network, as they just include Ring camera owners who have opted to share footage with the Neighbors app.
Read the story here.
