Fight for the Future

SAFETY ADVISORY: Ring cameras put families in danger from ICE this Halloween. Turn them off.

For immediate release: October 26, 2026

978-852-6457

October 26, 2026— For the second year in a row, leading anti-surveillance group Fight for the Future warns that using Amazon Ring doorbell cameras on Halloween exposes communities to ICE surveillance and violence.

Despite winning a major victory in Ring’s cancellation of its partnership with notorious surveillance company Flock, privacy advocates warn that AI facial recognition features and Ring’s continued partnership with Flock competitor Axon continue to put communities at risk.

To keep neighbors safe, Ring cameras should be turned off for the holiday.

The advisory reads:

To preserve human rights and community safety, all people in the United States are advised to turn off their Amazon Ring cameras this Halloween to avoid complicity with ICE surveillance and deportation of our immigrant neighbors.

Amazon has a long history of working with law enforcement, and in light of the ongoing attacks by ICE on our communities, it’s critical that we do everything possible to minimize Amazon’s surveillance of our neighborhoods.

Just last year, Amazon Ring announced a partnership Flock, making every doorbell and porch a tool of ICE surveillance. Amazon has since canceled the partnership following enormous backlash, including widespread public outcry against the company’s Super Bowl ad promoting its “Search Party” feature that blankets entire communities with invasive AI surveillance.

But threats remain—Ring has added AI facial recognition that can scan every face that comes to your door and maintains a partnership with surveillance company Axon Enterprise with known ties to Customs & Border Patrol.

As surveillance devices like Ring doorbells are increasingly being weaponized against marginalized groups, Fight for the Future is raising awareness ahead of this Halloween so that trick-or-treating kids and families, and all our neighbors, stay safe.

Sarah Philips (she/they), Campaign Director at Fight for the Future said: “The conversation about Ring surveillance has shown us that people do not want their neighborhoods, their kids, and their homes under ICE surveillance. Last year when Fight for the Future issued this advisory, the resounding response we heard was shock at Ring’s complicity with ICE and a continued reckoning about the surveillance that many people unwittingly put their communities under, with these cameras that are marketed for “safety.”

ICE does not keep our communities safe, it has put our neighbors under constant risk of harassment and imprisonment for living their daily lives. Because of pressure from consumers, we were able to pressure Ring to break its partnership with Flock, which is a huge win. But Ring’s continued use of AI facial recognition and its ties with Axon and CBP show that these cameras are not only invasive, they quite literally put everyone who walks by someone’s doorbell at risk of being tracked and surveilled. We know people are rallying across the country to keep their neighbors safe from ICE: turning these cameras off for Halloween to keep the kids in your neighborhood out of ICE databases is a small action that everyone with one of these cameras should do. The bigger, more meaningful step is breaking up with these cameras altogether and committing to a better, more comprehensive idea of public safety that does not capitulate to surveilling our communities.“

Along with the advisory, Fight for the Future urges Ring camera owners to take the following steps:

  1. Activate end-to-end encryption on all Ring cameras to block the sharing of data without the camera owner’s consent.
  2. Stop using their Ring surveillance cameras for good – as this is the only way to truly guarantee that footage won’t end up in the wrong hands.
  3. Continue having these conversations in neighborhoods and community meetings so that our doorsteps don’t become one more tool for ICE deportation and criminalization of abortion.
  4. To support this effort, the organization has created a printable door hanger as a tool to start this conversation gently with neighbors. It can be downloaded below.
    [ GET THE DOOR HANGER ]


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