Amazon’s Ring has unveiled a new feature that brings facial recognition to its video doorbells, allowing users to identify familiar faces at their doorstep. The ‘Familiar Faces’ feature, announced by Amazon earlier this year, is now being rolled out to Ring device owners in the United States.
With this feature, users can create a catalog of up to 50 faces, including family members, friends, delivery drivers, and more. Once labeled in the Ring app, the device will recognize these individuals and provide personalized notifications like ‘Mom at Front Door’ instead of generic alerts.
The feature has faced criticism from consumer protection groups and lawmakers, but Amazon emphasizes that it is opt-in, and the biometric data collected is not used to train AI models. Users have the ability to manage alerts based on recognized faces, enabling them to customize notifications and maintain privacy. The feature requires user activation and allows for easy naming and editing of recognized faces within the app.
This move by Amazon raises important questions about the intersection of technology, privacy, and security, sparking debates on the ethical implications of widespread facial recognition deployment in consumer devices.
Source: TechCrunch
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