AMAZON’S smart doorbell maker Ring has terminated a partnership with police surveillance tech company Flock Safety, following backlash to a Super Bowl ad that depicted a network of cameras helping to reunite a lost dog. According to Associated Press, Ring said the planned Flock Safety integration would require significantly more time and resources than anticipated, and that 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 framed the decision as mutual, emphasising its tools remain fully configurable to local laws and policies. Flock is one of the nation’s biggest operators of automated license-plate reading systems, whose cameras are deployed in thousands of communities, and it has faced public outcry during immigration enforcement crackdowns, though it says it does not partner with ICE or contract out direct access to its cameras.
Beyond this collaboration, Ring’s Super Bowl spot showed a dog being tracked by neighbourhood cameras using artificial intelligence, which critics argued could enable broader human surveillance; privacy advocates have urged caution over such technologies. 16 February 2026.