Amazon scraps partnership with surveillance company after Super Bowl ad backlash

Source: AP

Updated 11:38 AM EST, February 13, 2026


Amazon’s smart doorbell maker Ring has terminated a partnership with police surveillance tech company Flock Safety. The announcement follows a backlash that erupted after 30-second Ring ad that aired during the Super Bowl featuring a lost dog that is found through a network of cameras, sparking fears of a dystopian surveillance society.

But that feature, called Search Party, was not related to Flock. And Ring’s announcement doesn’t cite the ad as a reason for the “joint decision” for the cancellation. Ring and Flock said last year they were planning on working together to give Ring camera owners the option to share their video footage in response to law enforcement requests made through a Ring feature known as Community Requests.

“Following a comprehensive review, we determined the planned Flock Safety integration would require significantly more time and resources than anticipated,” Ring’s statement said. “The integration never launched, so no Ring customer videos were ever sent to Flock Safety.”

Flock reiterated that it never received Ring customer videos — and that ending the planned integration was a mutual decision that allows both companies to “best serve their respective customers.” In a statement, Flock added that it “remains dedicated to supporting law enforcement agencies with tools that are fully configurable to local laws and policies.”

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/amazon-flock-super-bowl-surveillance-privacy-32b7d32a06d369bffe3ffdcdd31962a1