Amazon Ring Faces Controversy With AI Facial Recognition to Doorbells

Amazon’s Ring video doorbells are beginning to do something that, until recently, felt like science fiction: recognize the people who walk up to your front door. 

The company is now rolling out an AI powered facial recognition feature called “Familiar Faces” to Ring device owners in the United States, after first announcing it in September (TechCrunch). The promise is convenience and better home awareness, but the rollout is already triggering loud concerns about privacy, surveillance, and how biometric data can be used once it exists (Dataconomy).

Here is how it works. Ring owners can create a catalog of up to 50 faces, which can include family members, friends, neighbors, delivery drivers, and household staff (TechCrunch). When the camera captures someone approaching, users can label that person in the Ring app, and the system can later replace generic alerts like “a person is at your door” with personalized notifications such as “Mom at Front Door,” which also appear in the app’s timeline and Event History (Yahoo Tech).

Ring emphasizes that users remain in control because the feature is disabled by default and must be turned on manually in the app’s settings (TechCrunch). Faces can be labeled from Event History or managed through a dedicated Familiar Faces library, where users can edit names, merge duplicates caused by lighting or angle differences, or delete faces entirely (Dataconomy).

To address privacy questions, Amazon says face data is encrypted, never shared, and unnamed faces are automatically removed after 30 days (TechCrunch). Amazon also told the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) that biometric data is processed in the cloud, that it is not used to train AI models, and that the company cannot generate a complete cross location history of where someone was detected, a claim some critics question given Ring’s “Search Party” feature that scans neighborhood cameras to help locate lost pets (Dataconomy).

Skeptics argue that the technical details are only part of the story because Ring has a history of close ties with law enforcement, including earlier processes that enabled police and fire departments to request footage via the Neighbors app and a more recent partnership with Flock Safety, whose AI surveillance cameras are used by police, federal agencies, and ICE (Dataconomy). Ring’s security record has also fueled mistrust, including a 2023 U.S. Federal Trade Commission action that resulted in a $5.8 million fine after investigators found employees and contractors had broad access to customer videos for years, alongside reports of exposed location data and compromised passwords (TechCrunch).

This article was written by the Covertly.AI team. Covertly.AI is a secure, anonymous AI chat that protects your privacy. Connect to advanced AI models without tracking, logging, or exposure of your data. Whether you’re an individual who values privacy or a business seeking enterprise-grade data protection, Covertly.AI helps you stay secure and anonymous when using AI. With Covertly.AI, you get seamless access to all popular large language models - without compromising your identity or data privacy.

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Works Cited

“Amazon’s Ring Rolls Out Controversial, AI Powered Facial Recognition Feature to Video Doorbells.” TechCrunch, 9 Dec. 2025, https://techcrunch.com/2025/12/09/amazons-ring-rolls-out-controversial-ai-powered-facial-recognition-feature-to-video-doorbells/. 

“Amazon’s Ring Rolls Out Controversial, AI Powered Facial Recognition Feature to Video Doorbells.” Yahoo Tech, https://tech.yahoo.com/home/articles/amazon-ring-rolls-controversial-ai-190408025.html. 

“Amazon Brings Facial Recognition to Ring Doorbells in the US.” Dataconomy, 10 Dec. 2025, https://dataconomy.com/2025/12/10/amazon-brings-facial-recognition-to-ring-doorbells-in-the-us/. 

“Amazon Staff.” “Ring introduces its first-ever 4K cameras and AI feature that helps find lost pets.” About Amazon, 30 Sept. 2025, https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/devices/ring-camera-4k-home-security.