SAFETY ADVISORY: No Ring for ICE this Halloween

To preserve human rights and community safety, all people in the United States are advised to turn off and cover their Amazon Ring cameras this Halloween to avoid complicity with ICE operations and the deportation of immigrant families who are trick-or-treating.

What’s happening?

Earlier this month, Amazon Ring announced a partnership with the notorious surveillance tech company Flock. This corporation was was recently exposed for secretly sharing camera data with Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) and with out-of-state law enforcement investigating people who travel for abortion care. As surveillance devices like Ring doorbells are increasingly being weaponized against marginalized groups, Fight for the Future is raising awareness ahead of Friday so everyone can take action to protect the privacy and safety of all trick-or-treating children and families.

What do we do?

In addition to the one-time Halloween advisory, the organization also encourages the following steps:

1. Share the advisory widely. We have posts up on Instagram, TikTok, Bluesky, and Mastodon for amplification. 
2. If you have a Ring, at the very least, turn off any Ring cameras ahead of Halloween, but ideally dump Ring surveillance cameras for good. 
3. We know dumping Ring can feel like a big and difficult ask. If you’re not ready to part ways with your camera just yet, please take a few extra minutes to activate the camera’s end-to-end encryption feature. 
4. Have a conversation with your neighbors individually, within your HOA, and in neighborhood community meeting spaces about this community safety issue.
5. Fight for the Future has put together a printable door hanger to spread awareness about this dangerous Ring partnership and gently encourage your neighbors who have cameras to take precautions to keep their footage out of ICE’s reach. It can be downloaded below.

Want to learn more?

• America’s Ring doorbell camera obsession highlights the scourge of mass surveillance
• Amazon Ring now works with video surveillance company Flock
• Border Patrol, ICE tapped into Washington police surveillance systems for potential immigration enforcement
• ICE and CBP Agents Are Scanning Peoples’ Faces on the Street To Verify Citizenship
• Ring cameras are about to get increasingly chummy with law enforcement
• Flock Safety and Texas Sheriff Claimed License Plate Search Was for a Missing Person. It Was an Abortion Investigation.