Ring Cancels Flock Safety Partnership: Privacy Win & Alternatives
Ring has canceled its controversial Flock Safety partnership. Discover why this is a win for privacy and explore secure, local-storage alternatives like Eufy and Reolink.
By Team Gimmie
Updated August 27, 2026
A VICTORY FOR PRIVACY: WHY RING’S RETREAT FROM SURVEILLANCE MATTERS FOR YOUR SMART HOME
As a product journalist who has covered the evolution of the smart home for over a decade, I have developed a very specific internal alarm. It goes off whenever a consumer convenience feature starts sounding like a tool for state-level surveillance. Usually, that alarm is just a dull hum in the background, but when news broke that Ring was planning to integrate with Flock Safety—a company famous for its massive network of automated license plate readers—it became a deafening siren.
Thankfully, the siren has been silenced, at least for now. Ring recently announced it is scrapping its planned partnership with Flock Safety. The official reason provided was a need for significantly more time and resources to make the integration work. In the world of corporate PR, that is often shorthand for we didn't expect this much of a public relations nightmare.
This cancellation is more than just a failed business deal; it is a significant win for anyone who believes that their front porch shouldn't automatically become a node in a massive police surveillance web. But more importantly, it is a wake-up call for how we choose, and how we give, the gift of security.
THE FIRESTORM WAS NECESSARY
The backlash to the Ring-Flock partnership wasn’t just a few angry tweets. It was a coordinated outcry from privacy advocates like the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the ACLU, who have long warned about the creep of privatized surveillance. Flock Safety operates a network of cameras that can track a car's movement across entire cities using license plate recognition. By integrating this with Ring—the most popular video doorbell brand in the world—they would have created a seamless bridge between private home data and law enforcement tracking.
While Ring was quick to point out that the integration never officially launched and no customer videos were shared, the mere intent was enough to rattle the industry. It highlighted a growing tension: when does a security camera stop being a tool for you to see who is at your door and start being a tool for a third party to track your neighborhood?
