Home / Technology / Ring's AI Sees All: Facial Recognition Rolls Out
Ring's AI Sees All: Facial Recognition Rolls Out
10 Dec
Summary
- Ring's new AI feature identifies familiar visitors to your door.
- The feature allows creating a catalog of up to 50 faces.
- Consumer groups and a U.S. Senator have raised privacy concerns.
Amazon's Ring devices are introducing a new AI-powered facial recognition feature, "Familiar Faces," enabling users to identify recurring visitors. This system allows for the creation of a catalog of up to 50 faces, personalizing notifications beyond simple presence detection. For instance, alerts can specify "Mom at Front Door," enhancing user convenience.
Despite Amazon's claims that face data is encrypted, never shared, and automatically deleted after 30 days, the feature faces significant pushback. Consumer advocacy groups like the EFF and U.S. Senator Ed Markey have voiced strong opposition, citing concerns over privacy and Amazon's history of partnerships with law enforcement.
The rollout is further complicated by privacy laws in states like Illinois and Texas. Amazon states that biometric data is cloud-processed and not used for AI model training, though questions remain about data usage similarities to other Ring features.
