Ron Wyden of Oregon, Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, Chris Coons of Delaware, Gary Peters of Michigan, and Ed Markey sent a followup letter to Amazon emphasizing that they are worried about the protection of Ring users’ data and are “concerned about media reports suggesting a lack of respect of the privacy of Ring customers.” Specifically, the letter details concerns that Ring employees in Ukraine were given “virtually unfettered access” to every piece of footage taken from every Ring camera around the world.

Ring’s business model has been a particularly challenging privacy concern to address. Because Ring sells itself as a personal home security system, but has the ability to function like a large-scale CCTV network accessible to police, Amazon can fall back on the idea that consumers chose to build this surveillance network, one porch at a time. When EFF brought its concerns about police partnerships and the harms of ubiquitous surveillance directly to Ring, our concerns were dismissed.