Ring apps for Android are "full of third-party trackers that send large amounts of personally identifiable information about customers," the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) claims in a new report

"Four major analytics and marketing firms were found to be receiving information such as paying member names, private IP addresses, mobile network carriers, persistent identifiers, and sensor data," the EFF report, posted yesterday (January 27) on the organization's website adding in the report

EFF names these companies as AppsFlyer, Branch, MixPanel, and Facebook The first three companies are not well-known, but they are well-known app analytics companies that help developers understand how apps are being used All of them are already included in many of the apps already in smartphones, whether Android or iPhone

In a statement to Tom's Guide, Ring denied that it collects this user information for malicious or commercial purposes and said that the data collected is for Ring's exclusive use

"Like many companies, Ring uses third-party service providers to evaluate mobile app usage, which helps us improve features, optimize customer experience, and evaluate the effectiveness of our marketing," the statement said

"Ring ensures that the use of the data provided by the service providers is contractually limited to appropriate purposes, such as performing these services on our behalf, and is not used for any other purpose

So, do you need to worry about the Ring app tracking your every move? Probably not

Whether you are on an iPhone or Android, your smartphone is running dozens of apps that send information to third parties for various purposes, as well as the Ring app Many of these apps sell their data to marketing companies, but Ring's app does not appear to be among them

Not all of the trackers listed in the EFF report are listed on this page, but Ring camera owners can opt out of third-party tracking services by visiting this page:

https://ringcom/third-party-services [

To analyze traffic from the Ring app on Android phones, EFF used a tool called MITMProxy and Frida Initially, Ring's encryption proved to be so good that EFF researchers were unable to see what was being sent

According to the EFF report, Ring's strong encryption is a bad thing because it may "prevent security researchers and users from seeing exactly what information these devices are transmitting"

I didn't expect the EFF to agree with the FBI and the US Department of Justice on this point

Ring is in the spotlight for several reasons First, many of its customers had Ring accounts set up with weak or reused passwords, which made it easy for a jerk to access them and make Ring's indoor cameras say rude things to small children

Although Ring did not initially make it clear, the security of Ring cameras can be locked down by enabling the two-factor authentication option

Another reason may be political: Ring is asking customers to share footage from Ring video doorbells and other Ring home security cameras with local police who want to track down criminals

It may or may not reduce crime But it has raised alarm bells among privacy advocates who fear that Big Brother is "surveillance capitalism," which Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, who owns Ring, appears to be

The EFF hinted at this angle in its report on the Ring app: the company "profits from a surveillance network that facilitates unprecedented police access to citizens' private lives"

It is a valid point, but we prefer to use less loaded language What we would really like to see is for the EFF and other privacy advocates to analyze the data sharing behavior of all the major security camera and video doorbell apps--Arlo, Nest, Wyze, etc--rather than just focusing on what is being talked about now