Today I learned Amazon has a form so police can get my data without permission or a warrant

Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge

I didn't know that law enforcement can fill out a form and get access to your data without your consent, or that a court order can be used to do so. The company has maintained for a long time that it helps police get consent first, but it is happening anyways.

In a letter dated July 1st and provided to press this week, Amazon stated that it has provided private Ring videos to law enforcement 11 times.

Here are the questions and answers that Amazon gave.

Although Markey is focused on Ring, which has its own form that law enforcement can fill out, we found that parent company Amazon has the same policy and request site of its own. Ring and Amazon both sell gadgets that can see and hear inside your home, even though Ring is best known for its cameras that look out of your home.

You might think that Amazon's answers seem reasonable to you. It is possible that each of these 11 times was a legitimate life-threatening emergency, the police knew it, and possibly the company saved lives by doing so.

The police and some unknown department within Amazon have everyone's best interests in mind. Amazon has lost the benefit of the doubt due to the fact that trust in police and their tools is low.

It is troubling that the company has admitted to having no policies that restrict how law enforcement can use Ring users' footage, no data security requirements for law enforcement entities that have users' footage, and no policies that prohibit law enforcement officers from keeping Ring users' footage forever.

Federal law allows Amazon to give this kind of information to a government agency if the provider believes that an emergency involving danger of death or serious physical injury to any person requires disclosure without delay. That is a direct quote from 18 US 2702 It is unclear if anything would keep bad actors at Amazon or law enforcement from abusing a system which has no obvious oversight.

It is not clear if owners would ever know that their Ring camera footage was accessed by the police and potentially saved for months or years afterwards. Do they hear anything after? It is not known who at Amazon would make these good faith determinations, or if they would trust law enforcement to do so.

We wanted to know if Ring gives anyone unfettered access to customer data or video, but Amazon wouldn't answer them, instead writing that it's "Simply untrue that Ring gives anyone unfettered access to customer data or video"

Amazon used to use law enforcement as a marketing tool to help sell more of its Ring doorbell cameras. It has partnerships with 2,161 law enforcement agencies. It is not clear if obtaining Ring footage has aided law enforcement with cases.

If you have a wired Ring camera, you can turn on the company's end-to-end encryption for your video streams, but Amazon does not offer that feature on its popular batteries. End-to-end encryption is not the default for the Ring cameras. Brian Huseman, Amazon's VP of public policy wrote that they are committed to giving customers options so they can choose the ring experience that is right for them.

If you want to be careful, you have to opt in to deletion of your recordings. Apple will no longer keep recordings of its voice activated assistant by default.