In a controversial but viral ad for Amazon’s Ring that premiered during the Super Bowl, a user uploaded a photo of a lost dog so that participating homes in Ring’s Search Party feature could scan their footage to find the lost dog. What started as an inspiring story of reunification ended with millions of Americans shocked at how “terrible” technology is, and how it can be manipulated for nefarious purposes, such as tracking individuals and finding their current whereabouts.

The ad describes Ring’s Search Party feature, specifically different from the Community Requests feature Ring and Flock first partnered to integrate technologies. RING concluded its contract with Flock Safety, an AI-powered license reader used in (or, formerly for some) police precincts across the country. Flock, a company that sells networks of roadside cameras and software to police departments, businesses, and neighborhoods to identify vehicles and feed that data into searchable law enforcement databases, is active in more than 5,000 US cities. The software scans license plates and uses integrated video tools to log plates, times, and locations, then alerts police if a vehicle matches a “hot list” or is involved in an investigation.

But Ring’s Super Bowl commercial, regardless of the fact that it featured Ring’s technology and not Flock’s, made millions wary of the software company’s massive camera and data network, and how it could easily be used to not only scan license plates but much more.

“The intended integration of Flock with Community Requests has been cancelled,” a Ring spokesperson said Good luck. “This integration will never be live, and no videos will be shared between these services. After a comprehensive review, we have learned that the planned Flock Safety integration will take more time and resources than expected. We have therefore made the joint decision to cancel the integration.”

The move comes amid growing concerns about privacy, civil liberties, and the role of private technology companies in federal law enforcement activities.

A spokesperson for Flock said Fortune: “We didn’t know the ad was coming to the Super Bowl, and we had nothing to do with it.”

However, Flock and Ring agreed that integration to improve Community Demands would prove difficult with current resources, added a Flock spokesperson.

Now cities are both going after and canceling their own software company contracts. Cities from Flagstaff, Ariz., to Windsor, Conn., join more than 30 other cities across the country that have suspended, if not completely ended, their partnership with Flock.

Since the start of 2025, at least 30 cities have canceled their contracts with Flock, including Eugene, Ore.; Hillsborough, NC; and Santa Cruz, Calif. Flagstaff Mayor Becky Daggett spoke NPR “Community anger” explains that the technology will not be received well, although he has high hopes that the technology will be used.

“Ultimately, it’s clear that this is not a technology that will be accepted well or that we can continue to use,” Daggett told NPR.

“I think the mayor said it better than I could,” a spokesperson told Flock. Good luck. “Communities that remove Flock are only doing themselves a disservice, without addressing the underlying concerns that are the real issue,” the spokesperson added, noting that the company has put guardrails in place to work with communities to address any privacy concerns they may have.

“Flock can configure our system so that it is compatible with any community or any local law and local state values,” said the spokesperson, referring to the company’s work in San Francisco and Oakland, Calif., where both cities have regulations that prevent license plate readers from working with immigration enforcement — something Flock already complies with. “We have hard-coded guardrails that prevent that. So we have a filter that blocks any immigration-related searches that are automatically applied throughout California.”

Other cities echoed the sentiment. “For the past several years, the Windsor Police Department has had a cooperative relationship with Flock Safety,” said an assistant city manager in Windsor, Conn. Good luck. “The department uses technology as one of many tools aimed at aiding investigations, locating stolen vehicles, and missing persons. While cameras contribute valuable information to investigations, they always represent only one part of our overall public safety strategy.”

Even major metropolitan departments are beginning to push back on Flock’s basic terms. The Police Department of Boston and Massachusetts ACLU requested changes to their user agreement to ensure they could restrict data sharing, bypassing Flock’s default clause, which gives the company a “worldwide, perpetual, royalty-free” license to disclose agency data for “investigative purposes.”

De-flocking continues

Jamie Siminoff, Ring’s founder who recently returned as CEO to re-embrace the company’s original mission of “fighting crime,” expressed deep disappointment about the public’s reaction. In a series of reflections on the feature’s launch, Siminoff defended the tool’s utility and its privacy protections.

Later, responding to the viral criticism, he said: “It’s a shame,” Siminoff told Good luck. “The misunderstanding of it is what saddens me, because it’s like people making up their own narrative of how it works.” He emphasized that the system is completely voluntary, explaining that if a neighbor chooses not to share the footage, “your privacy is completely fine, nobody knows.” Siminoff maintained that the digital system is just a more efficient version of calling a phone number on a dog tag, adding, “I think it’s a really good thing for the world.”

Announced in October 2025, the Flock-Ring deal is intended to integrate Ring’s Community Requests feature into Flock’s software, allowing police to easily request and receive footage from private homes.

The partnership has drawn scrutiny because of Flock’s reported ties to federal agencies. But Flock’s spokesperson dismissed these relationships as rumours, saying: “We don’t have any contract with any of them, which means they don’t have direct access to the platform’s data.”

The public outcry grew. The open-source app DeFlock.org recently launched to track the location of more than 77,000 AI license-plate readers nationwide, with the app’s creators arguing that the scanners have created a detailed “location history” of ordinary residents, leading to racial profiling and potential stalking by officers. A Flock spokesperson says the technology only shows one license plate at one location at one point and place in time.

The company is working to implement more guardrails to address any community concerns, adding: “We are ready to work with any cities again, if they choose.”

As the contract expires, Ring said public sentiment proves one thing: People want to feel safe in their neighborhoods.

“So while the controversy is pretty high in the social media space,” Siminoff said good luck, “I’m not sure what percentage of that translates to the same population.

“I think a lot of people are genuinely concerned about safer neighborhoods and returning dogs with a company like Ring that maintains your privacy.”

This article has been updated to include comments from the Ring and the City of Windsor.