Ring and Watch Duty Team Up to Keep a Closer Eye on Wildfires

City: The new partnership between Ring and Watch Duty automates how users share videos. John Mills, the CEO of Watch Duty, explains, “Their system will get a ping and say, hey, there’s a fire within a mile of your property, you should know about it.” Users can then share a live feed from their front porch with everyone.

Mills says, “Front-row seats to what’s happening is a crazy idea.” People will often share images of floods or fires from Ring cameras on Twitter. Siminoff states that over 10,000 Ring cameras were near the Palisades fires. He believes that using these cameras could have helped residents and first responders see where the fires were.

Mills recalls that when Ring contacted Watch Duty, he spoke with Siminoff about his experience during the Palisades fire. It seemed natural for them to work together. “He wanted to get this deal done right away,” Mills says. Siminoff was eager to move forward and offered them significant funding to build this new feature for early next year.

Ring has faced privacy issues, working with police to share videos and receiving lawsuits for not protecting user data. WIRED has reported concerns about Ring’s handling of these matters. Siminoff says, “We’re trying to make things better, not worse, but we’re going to keep learning.”

Mills believes that Ring’s work in wildfire monitoring aligns with Watch Duty’s goals. Their service mostly relies on volunteers tracking wildfire information. While they can use Ring videos, Mills points out that they will not show individual homes burning down. Instead, if an entire block is ablaze, they will publish that information for the public.

Another feature they have is AI smoke and fire detection for Ring Home subscribers. While both Ring and Watch Duty use AI, Mills emphasizes that their detection system is always verified by a human, likely a dedicated volunteer.