Ring founder addresses FBI recovery of doorbell footage in Nancy Guthrie disappearance case
Ring founder Jamie Siminoff said Tuesday that Ring does not store deleted doorbell footage without a subscription, as questions continue over how law enforcement recovered previously inaccessible video evidence in the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie.
Siminoff addressed the issue during an appearance on "The Bottom Line," where hosts Dagen McDowell and Brian Brenberg asked about subscription storage, privacy concerns and the reported recovery of doorbell video by federal authorities.
"I do know with Ring specifically, if you delete a recording or if you don't want a recording, you don't have a subscription. We do not have it stored. I know that because I built the systems with my team," Siminoff said.
Siminoff cautioned against speculating about the specifics of the Guthrie investigation and noted that different companies build their systems differently.
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"I wouldn't want to speculate," he said. "Maybe they're also, maybe we're wrong, and that she did have some sort of subscription. You know, again, we're getting a lot of, in the sort of in these cases, I've found that a lot of the things that we're hearing are not always correct, and we find out later what's actually happening."
He reiterated that Ring does not retain deleted footage without an active subscription.
"If you delete a recording or if you don't want a recording, you don't have a subscription. We do not have it stored," Siminoff said.
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Federal officials said Tuesday that video was recovered from "residual data located in backend systems," according to a statement posted on X by FBI Director Kash Patel.
Google cooperated with the FBI to retrieve the video, a federal source confirmed to Fox News Digital.
Asked how investigators may have been able to recover doorbell footage in the Guthrie case, Siminoff again cautioned against speculation and stressed that companies build their systems differently.
"I mean, definitely hard to speculate on something like this because, you know, everybody builds their systems differently," he said.
He again declined to draw conclusions about what occurred in this case.
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"Again, I don't want to speculate exactly like what happened or what subscription they had or whatever," Siminoff said. "I think there's a lot of probably information out there that we don't know."
Siminoff said the video evidence could be significant for investigators.
"It does seem like this video footage might be the best evidence so far," he said, "and it shows why it is just so important to have these cameras."
While avoiding details of the investigation, Siminoff said he was encouraged that authorities were able to recover video evidence.
"But again, I'm happy to see here that, you know, for whatever the reason was that they were able to with this camera, you know, recover this," he said. "Because I do think this evidence is hopefully going to lead to the a solution here to this, this really just tragic case."
During the interview, Siminoff also responded to backlash surrounding Ring’s Super Bowl "Search Party" advertisement, which focused on a feature designed to help locate lost pets.
"It actually like is a completely built on privacy," he said. "So what we do is you we like we look for a dog, someone post a dog, we find it, we say, you know, Jamie, this dog that's lost in your neighborhood looks like this dog in front of your camera. Do you want to contact your neighbor?"
He said users retain full control over whether any contact occurs.
"If you say no, your privacy is protected. You're totally fine," Siminoff said. "If you say yes, then like I think most people would want to, you help return the dog."
He added that the feature has helped reunite pets with their owners.
"We're returning over a dog a day," Siminoff said. "And we're doing it by keeping privacy and trust because that is very important."
Keep up with the latest reporting on the Nancy Guthrie case with Fox Nation's ‘Vanished: What Happened to Nancy Guthrie?’
Fox News Digital's Emma Bussey contributed to this reporting.