- Amazon software engineer Max Eliaser said the home security company Ring should be “shut down immediately.”
- “The privacy issues are not fixable with regulation and there is no balance that can be struck,” Eliaser said.
- Eliaser’s comments were part of a post in which hundreds of Amazon employees shared their views on various company policies and products.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
An Amazon engineer has attacked the home security camera company Ring, saying it should be shut down immediately.
“The deployment of connected home security cameras that allow footage to be queried centrally are simply not compatible with a free society,” Amazon software development engineer Max Eliaser said in a post published to Medium on Sunday. “The privacy issues are not fixable with regulation and there is no balance that can be struck. Ring should be shut down immediately and not brought back.”
Eliaser’s comments are striking because Ring is owned by Amazon, and Amazon’s corporate employees rarely speak out against the company. (Amazon bars employees from speaking about the company without prior approval).
Amazon and Ring did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Amazon acquired Ring, which makes video doorbells and home security cameras, in 2018.
The camera company has faced scrutiny recently over privacy issues, mostly around its agreements with law enforcement and problems with hackers accessing the devices.
Ring's own employees have also abused access to customer feeds, the company told lawmakers recently.
The Medium post quoting Eliaser included critical comments from hundreds of Amazon employees concerning various Amazon policies and products.
The post was published Sunday by the advocacy group Amazon Employees for Climate Justice and it was meant to protest the company's external communications policy.
