Amazon’s Ring rolls out controversial, AI-powered facial recognition feature to video doorbells
SMRTR summary
Your doorbell can now remember faces. Amazon's Ring devices are rolling out "Familiar Faces," an AI feature that creates a catalog of up to 50 people who regularly visit your home, from family members to delivery drivers. Instead of generic alerts saying "person at door," you'll get personalized notifications like "Mom at Front Door."
The feature arrives despite Amazon's troubled privacy history. Ring paid $5.8 million in fines after employees had unrestricted access to customer videos for years, and the company has partnerships with law enforcement and surveillance providers like Flock, whose cameras are used by police and ICE.
Privacy laws are blocking the feature in Illinois, Texas, and Portland, Oregon. Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey has called for Amazon to abandon it entirely, while consumer groups raise concerns about biometric data collection.
"Knocking on a door, or even just walking in front of it, shouldn't require abandoning your privacy," says EFF Staff Attorney F. Mario Trujillo.
The feature isn't enabled by default, and Amazon claims face data is encrypted and never shared. But given Ring's security lapses and law enforcement ties, privacy advocates suggest keeping it disabled.
SMRTR provides this summary for quick context. The original article belongs to TechCrunch.
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