The doorbell that watches the sidewalk Smart doorbells were sold as "see who's at the door." They became neighborhood-scale surveillance cameras whose footage flows into police request portals, civil suits, and viral social media — usually without the bystanders' knowledge. Amazon Ring's January 2024 decision to remove the "Request for Assistance" tool that let police mass-request footage was a real reform. The 2026 reality is messier. The 2026 receipts EFF Atlas of Surveillance, 2026 update — documents over 2,500 US police departments with formal Ring partnerships. Most predate the 2024 portal change and use other paths. ICO (UK) guidance, refreshed Q1 2026 — UK doorbell owners may be considered the data controller for footage of public space, with obligations under UK GDPR. A handful of neighbour-vs-neighbour cases have set early case law. CalECPA challenge (Cal., May 2026) — first published California decision suppressing doorbell-derived footage obtained through a cloud-vendor request without a warrant. What gets kept (and shared) Surface / Default retention / Default sharing Cloud event clips / 30–60 days / Cloud vendor + warrant requests Continuous recording / Subscription only / Cloud vendor + warrant requests Person/face crops / Indefinite / Cloud vendor (model training, opt-in) Audio / With clip / Sometimes excluded by jurisdiction How to be a less hostile neighbour Disable audio recording. Most jurisdictions treat audio as the more invasive signal; many require two-party consent. Switch it off. Aim the camera at your door, not the sidewalk. It is your most significant single mitigation. Use local storage if available. Eufy, Reolink, and others offer on-device storage that never round-trips through a vendor portal. Post a notice. ICO recommends it; some EU jurisdictions require it. It also reduces the chilling effect on bystanders. How to be a less surveilled neighbour Know your local law. The "expectation of privacy in public" debate is still evolving; the Atlas of Surveillance flags the active jurisdictions. The practical answer is political, not personal. Push your city council on the police-portal opt-in and on retention caps for bystander footage. The doorbell that protects your porch should not be deputised into a sidewalk surveillance grid by default. In 2026 that is finally a regulated argument, not a fringe one.