Ring obtained personal customer information as a part of the company’s taxpayer-funded discount programs, in which cities subsidize the purchase of Ring surveillance cameras for residents. Motherboard has written about and explained these programs at length . Basically, Ring will match every dollar committed by a city through these discount programs. In other words, for every $100 residents save when buying a Ring product, the city pays $50 and Ring pays $50. Typically, cities invite Ring to sell discounted cameras at in-person events. Ring will also provide city discount codes that residents can use to buy discounted cameras online.

Cities and local police departments have asked Ring, Amazon's home security company, to share the names, home addresses, and email addresses of every person who has bought a home surveillance camera through taxpayer-funded subsidy programs Motherboard has learned.

City Council meeting minutes from Rancho Palos Verdes, CA—which paid $100,000 for a discount program in 2017—claim that Ring told the city that the company could provide “a full breakdown of every resident and address that purchased a device” as a part of the discount program.

According to documents obtained by Motherboard, city officials from Arcadia, CA and Rancho Palos Verdes, CA have asked Ring to share a registry of everyone who owns a Ring camera in the neighborhood. Ring has also, in at least one city, claimed to have individually mapped people who redeemed discount codes for subsidized Ring cameras online.

“We have names of all the people who purchased if you want to block these people,” a Ring employee said. “We will match against names and emails of everyone who purchased at the event and prevent people from doubling up.”

Emails between an Arcadia city government worker and a Ring employee show that the company kept a list of “names and emails” of everyone who purchased a city-subsidized camera. This information was shared with city government in order to “block” people from using a discount code if they already purchased a camera at an in-person event.

Similarly, a document from the police department of Arcadia, CA—which paid for Ring discount programs in 2017 and 2018—says, “Ring will also provide the City with an address report for the products purchased in order to help the Arcadia Police Department track the location of Ring Video Doorbells and other Ring security camera equipment, and assess the level of community interest.”

Arcadia, CA residents had to sign a “general release" waiver before purchasing a discounted Ring camera. However, this waiver makes no mention of how Ring, police, or the city obtain, store, or share their personal information.

An Arcadia government spokesperson told Motherboard that the city has not requested the registry from Ring, and the city does not have such a registry in their possession.

In an email to Motherboard, Ring denied that the company has ever provided customer information to cities that participate in its discount program. Ring claimed that city representatives misunderstood their communications with the company.

"Ring does not provide, and has never provided, resident information to law enforcement or cities participating in Ring's subsidy match program," the company said. "The statements made by Arcadia's representatives in presenting the subsidy program were a misrepresentation of what was contained in the agreement itself and no such information was provided to the City or Police of Arcadia at any point."