KEN KIRSCHENBAUM, ESQ
ALARM - SECURITY INDUSTRY LEGAL EMAIL NEWSLETTER / THE ALARM EXCHANGE
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Contract sale today only - birthday special / Ring quested on video release policy - what's yours?
August 5, 2022
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Contract sale today only - birthday special
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When's the sale? Today. Orders received by midnight today will be discounted 20%. If you're a Concierge Client [and you should be for lots of reasons] you get another 10% [that's 30% total].
These are 2022 updates with most current changes. Do you need new contracts? Yes if you're contracts are not 2022 contracts, and definitely if not at least 2021 contracts. Call our Contract Administrator Eileen Wagda at 516 747 6700 x 312 or email EWagda@Kirschenbaumesq.com for assistance.
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Ring challenged on video release policy - what's yours?
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An interesting article was circulated by Fox News on-line regarding an investigation by Democratic Senator from Massachusetts Ed Markey into Amazon's policy on releasing video data from doorbell camera footage to police without customer consent. He contends there are privacy violations and issues. The Senator is quoted as stating: "As my ongoing investigation into Amazon illustrates, it has become increasingly difficult for the public to move, assemble, and converse in public without being tracked and recorded,” Markey said in a statement.
“We cannot accept this as inevitable in our country,” he continued. “Increasing law enforcement reliance on private surveillance creates a crisis of accountability, and I am particularly concerned that biometric surveillance could become central to the growing web of surveillance systems that Amazon and other powerful tech companies are responsible for.”
I note that the Senator left out right to riot and loot, but that's another article.
The Senator and his staff should have checked the Ring Terms of Service for use of the doorbell camera. The terms of service include the following:
"In addition to the rights granted above, you also acknowledge and agree that Ring may access, use, preserve and/or disclose your Content to law enforcement authorities, government officials, and/or third parties, if legally required to do so or if we have a good faith belief that such access, use, preservation or disclosure is reasonably necessary to: (a) comply with applicable law, regulation, legal process or reasonable preservation request; (b) enforce these Terms, including investigation of any potential violation thereof; (c) detect, prevent or otherwise address security, fraud or technical issues; or (d) protect the rights, property or safety of Ring, its users, a third party, or the public as required or permitted by law.
Deleted Content and Ring Protect Recordings may be stored by Ring in order to comply with certain legal obligations and are not retrievable without a valid court order."
How does this affect you? You may sell, install and program the Ring camera for your customers, and you may sell other doorbell or other cameras that are monitored or data stored at the central station. This is certainly a current issue that is going to become more and more prevalent.
The Standard Form Agreements have you covered, and just to be sure I've updated the Residential All in One, the Commercial All in One and the Camera agreements to broaden the central station's right to release the data. The Kirschenbaum Contracts™ make it crystal clear that the video data belongs to the monitoring center, not the customer and you can't help because it doesn't belong to you either. If you are asked by the customer to retrieve data from a local DVR then you obviously have consent.
"Monitoring Center is authorized to record and maintain audio and video transmissions, data and communications, and shall be the exclusive owner of such property. All Subscriber information and data shall be maintained confidentially by ALARM COMPANY unless required by court order or request of law enforcement for exigent circumstances."
Here is the Fox News article:
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Amazon’s Ring unit has repeatedly handed over its users’ doorbell camera footage to law enforcement without their consent, according to new findings from an ongoing investigation led by Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey, D-Mass.
In June, Markey wrote a letter to Amazon seeking information on how Ring planned to address ongoing issues related to privacy violations and data sharing with police departments.
Ring states that it will not share customer information with law enforcement without consent, a warrant or “an exigent or emergency” circumstance. The home security company told Markey in a July 1 letter that it has provided footage to law enforcement 11 times this year in response to emergency requests for information.
“In each instance, Ring made a good-faith determination that there was an imminent danger of death or serious physical injury to a person requiring disclosure of information without delay,” Amazon vice president of public policy Brian Huseman wrote.
Ring currently has 2,161 law enforcement agencies and 455 fire departments enrolled on its Neighbors Public Safety Service (NPSS), a platform that allows Ring users to share suspicious videos captured by their devices. The figure represents a more than five-fold increase in law enforcement partnerships with Ring since November 2019, according
“As my ongoing investigation into Amazon illustrates, it has become increasingly difficult for the public to move, assemble, and converse in public without being tracked and recorded,” Markey said in a statement.
“We cannot accept this as inevitable in our country,” he continued. “Increasing law enforcement reliance on private surveillance creates a crisis of accountability, and I am particularly concerned that biometric surveillance could become central to the growing web of surveillance systems that Amazon and other powerful tech companies are responsible for.”
Markey blasted Ring’s response letter for failing to clarify the distance from which its products can capture audio recordings. In its letter, Ring said that its products’ audio capture capability “depends on many conditions, including device placement and environmental conditions.”
“While our customers expect audio capabilities, they also have the ability to disable a device’s audio features with an easy toggle found in the privacy settings of the Ring app,” Huseman noted.
In addition, Markey slammed Ring for not committing to eliminating its doorbells’ default setting of automatically recording audio and making end-to-end encryption the default storage option for consumers.
Huseman argued that changing the default setting to not capture audio could potentially create a negative customer experience by preventing them from hearing audio during an emergency situation. In addition, he emphasized that end-to-end encryption “may not be right” for all Ring customers and that the company is committed to giving its customers control over whether to enable the feature.
By Lucas Manfredi , Fox News July 16, 2022
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To order up to date Standard Form Alarm / Security / Fire and related Agreements click here: www.alarmcontracts.com
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To order up to date Standard Form Alarm / Security / Fire and related Agreements click here: www.alarmcontracts.com
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Ken Kirschenbaum,Esq
Kirschenbaum & Kirschenbaum PC
Attorneys at Law
200 Garden City Plaza
Garden City, NY 11530
516 747 6700 x 301
ken@kirschenbaumesq.com
www.KirschenbaumEsq.com