Hajra Naz
Amazon’s Ring doorbells can now identify visitors using a new AI-powered facial-recognition feature. Announced earlier this September, the feature called “Familiar Faces” is rolling out to Ring owners in the United States.
The feature allows users to create a catalog of up to 50 faces, including family, friends, neighbors, delivery drivers, and household staff. Once a person is labeled in the Ring app, the doorbell recognizes them when they approach the camera.
Instead of generic alerts like “a person is at your door,” users will receive personalized notifications, such as “Mom at Front Door.”
How Familiar Faces Works
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Optional Feature: Not enabled by default; users must turn it on in the app settings
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Labeling Faces: Faces can be named via the Event History section or the Familiar Faces library
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Notifications: Labeled faces appear in all alerts, timelines, and event history
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Editing: Users can edit names, merge duplicates, or delete faces at any time
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Data Handling: Amazon claims all face data is encrypted and never shared; unnamed faces are deleted after 30 days
Users can also customize alerts, such as turning off notifications for their own comings and goings, on a per-face basis.
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Privacy Concerns and Controversy
Despite Amazon’s assurances, the feature has sparked privacy concerns. Consumer organizations, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), and U.S. Senator Ed Markey (D-Mass.) have criticized the rollout.
Amazon has a history of partnering with law enforcement. The company previously allowed police and fire departments to request footage directly from the Ring Neighbors app. More recently, it partnered with Flock, a maker of AI surveillance cameras used by federal law enforcement and ICE.
Ring’s Security Challenges
Ring has faced security and privacy failures in the past:
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In 2023, Ring paid a $5.8 million fine after the FTC found employees and contractors had broad access to customer videos for years
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The Neighbors app exposed users’ home addresses and locations
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Users’ Ring passwords have reportedly appeared on the dark web
Given this track record, privacy experts recommend that Ring owners exercise caution when labeling people with proper names and consider keeping the feature disabled.
Legal and Regional Limitations
Due to privacy laws, Amazon cannot launch Familiar Faces in Illinois, Texas, and Portland, Oregon, according to the EFF.
Amazon states that biometric data is processed in the cloud, not used to train AI models, and claims it technically could not identify all locations where a person was detected, even if law enforcement requested it. Critics question this limitation, pointing to features like “Search Party,” which scans networks of Ring cameras across neighborhoods.
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Expert Opinions
F. Mario Trujillo, Staff Attorney at the EFF, commented:
“Knocking on a door, or even just walking in front of it, shouldn’t require abandoning your privacy. With this feature going live, it’s more important than ever that state privacy regulators step in to investigate, protect people’s privacy, and test the strength of their biometric privacy laws.”
The debate continues over whether AI upgrades like Familiar Faces are truly useful or a dystopian surveillance tool, highlighting the tension between convenience and privacy in smart home technology.
