Amazon's Ring has ended its planned integration with surveillance firm Flock Safety following widespread criticism of a Super Bowl advertisement. The ad, intended to promote a feature for finding lost pets, instead highlighted privacy concerns over facial recognition and law enforcement access. Senator Ed Markey and online critics described the commercial as dystopian, prompting Ring to abandon the deal announced last October.
The Super Bowl on February 8, 2026, featured a Ring advertisement for its new "Search Party" feature, aimed at helping neighbors locate missing dogs using AI-powered camera networks. The ad opens with a young girl receiving a puppy as a gift and notes that 10 million dogs go missing annually, before showing lost dog posters and the technology activating searchlights across a neighborhood. However, the visuals drew sharp rebuke for implying mass surveillance capabilities.
Senator Ed Markey (D-Mass.) described the ad as "creepy" in a letter to Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, warning that the AI-enabled image recognition could be used to "surveil and identify humans." He highlighted privacy risks, stating that Ring cameras collect biometric information, including face scans, without consent and allow indefinite retention. Markey noted that individuals seeking removal of their face scans must go door-to-door, and he demanded a pause on the "Familiar Faces" facial recognition feature. On X, Markey posted: "What this ad doesn’t show: Ring also rolled out facial recognition for humans... This definitely isn’t about dogs—it’s about mass surveillance."
The backlash intensified scrutiny of Ring's October 2025 partnership with Flock Safety, an Atlanta-based company providing license plate readers, drones, and video surveillance to 5,000 law enforcement agencies. Social media users called the ad "awfully dystopian" and accused it of normalizing surveillance that could benefit police or Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), amid ongoing US protests against such agencies. Flock denies sharing data with ICE. Reports emerged of Ring customers destroying devices or seeking refunds.
On February 13, 2026, Ring announced the partnership's cancellation, stating it never launched and no customer videos were shared. The company cited a "comprehensive review" determining it would require "significantly more time and resources than anticipated." A closing note affirmed: "We’ll continue to carefully evaluate future partnerships to ensure they align with our standards for customer trust, safety, and privacy." Flock echoed that the decision allows both to "best serve their respective customers and communities."
Cybersecurity researcher John Scott-Railton criticized Ring's statement as insufficient, posting on X and Bluesky: "The company cannot have it both ways." Expert Erik Avakian of Info-Tech Research Group viewed it as a business decision amid regulatory and public sentiment risks, though Ring's opt-in community features with law enforcement remain unchanged. Ring continues partnerships like with Axon and provides videos upon request.
