Amazon just rolled out its most controversial feature yet - AI-powered facial recognition for Ring doorbells. The "Familiar Faces" technology can identify up to 50 people approaching your door, replacing generic "person detected" alerts with personalized notifications like "Mom at Front Door." But the launch comes amid fierce backlash from privacy advocates and a U.S. senator demanding Amazon abandon the feature entirely.
Amazon's Ring division just crossed a line that privacy advocates have been dreading. The company's new "Familiar Faces" feature transforms every Ring doorbell into an AI-powered facial recognition system, capable of identifying regular visitors and replacing anonymous alerts with personalized notifications.
The technology works by creating a digital catalog of up to 50 faces - family members, friends, delivery drivers, or anyone else who regularly approaches your door. Once you label someone in the Ring app, the system recognizes them automatically and sends customized alerts like "Mom at Front Door" instead of generic person detection warnings.
Amazon frames this as convenience, allowing users to filter out unwanted notifications from their own comings and goings. The feature requires manual activation in app settings and promises encrypted face data that's automatically deleted after 30 days if left unlabeled. But the launch has already sparked a political firestorm.
Senator Ed Markey (D-Mass.) is demanding Amazon abandon the feature entirely, calling it a dangerous expansion of surveillance technology. Privacy laws in Illinois, Texas, and Portland, Oregon have already blocked the rollout, while the Electronic Frontier Foundation warns about Amazon's troubling track record with user data.
That history includes some damning precedents. Ring paid a $5.8 million FTC fine in 2023 after regulators found employees and contractors had "broad and unrestricted access" to customer videos for years. The company's Neighbors app exposed users' home addresses and precise locations, while Ring passwords have been floating around dark web markets for years.
