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A SimpliSafe spokeswoman, Amy Nagy, said: In our privacy policy we do reserve the right to share customer videos with law enforcement in times of extreme emergencies. Having this in our privacy policy does not change our practice of not sharing this data with law enforcement unless required to do so by law, or with user consent in most cases.

Googles policies similarly allow it to share video with law enforcement where there is user consent or a legal order, while D-Links and TP-Links policies will do so under legal orders. (Their documentation doesnt mention user consent.)

Nobody is telling Amazon, Google, Eufy, and others that theyre required to share user video with law enforcement, said Anna Bonesteel, strategic response manager for the privacy advocacy group Fight for the Future. The federal law cited by Google states that companies may disclose customer records without permission. It doesnt say they must.

But these companies are giving up private video to the police anywaywithout a warrant, without permission, and without notification," she added. Amazon Ring created the market for these every-household surveillance devices, so they arguably deserve the most blame for establishing industry-standard policies that circumvent our individual rights.

Greg Nojeim, senior counsel at the Center for Democracy and Technology, said the emergency exception outlined by ECPA isnt necessarily a bad thing, because there are noncriminal emergencies that could benefit from these disclosures.

Asked to describe a real-life scenario where these disclosures can be helpful, Nojeim said to imagine its 2 am and an elderly grandmother has wandered off. Her daughter calls the police, who want to check the homes security cameras to know when she might have left and which direction she headed. Theres no suspicion of crime, so it is not possible to get a warrant, and the camera account owner, the daughters husband, is out of town and cant be reached. In this case, the police would contact the camera maker, describe the emergency, and get disclosure of the footage under the emergency exception.

The trick is for providers to get it right and make sure the emergency exception in ECPA isnt being abused by law enforcement and used to circumvent the warrant requirements, Nojeim said.

Read the original here:
It's Not Just Ring. Google, SimpliSafe, and Others Could Share Video Footage With Police Without Consent. - Consumer Reports