Familiar Faces, unfamiliar territory

Ring’s controversial new doorbell feature aims to finally end the centuries-old mystery of “Who’s at the door?”

The Amazon-owned smart doorbell maker is launching a new AI-powered facial recognition feature called “Familiar Faces” for Ring users across the US.

How it works: Familiar Faces allows Ring users to create a catalog of up to 50 faces of people who regularly come by, including friends, family, delivery workers, etc.

Once someone is labeled by Ring, the device will automatically recognize them and send the user personalized notifications, like “Cousin Joey at Front Door.”

But…Despite several privacy assurances from Amazon—including claims that the facial data is encrypted, and that unnamed faces are deleted after 30 days—others have raised concerns over potential breaches of privacy.

• US Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) and several consumer protection organizations have called on Amazon to remove its facial recognition feature from Ring doorbells.
• And local privacy laws prevent Amazon from launching the feature in Illinois, Texas, or Portland, Oregon

Zoom out: Public polling shows Americans have grown more comfortable with the use of facial recognition software in recent years, with nearly half of the population now believing its widespread use would be a good thing for society.