Ring Home Security cameras are one of the most popular choices, and this year, the company is rolling out a new feature called “Familiar Faces.”
The new technology uses facial recognition to measure, track, and learn the faces of people around your home. According to Amazon, which owns Ring, the goal is to reduce the number of notifications customers receive from family members’ daily routines.
Technology experts, however, told WSOC News that they’re concerned that anyone caught on camera could be exposed to real privacy risk.
“When you have this big network of cameras identifying people by face, you can see a world where a few things change on the back end, and Amazon and Ring can identify anywhere you have been in their giant database,” said Mario Trujillo with the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Trujillo told WSOC News that at least 16 states recently passed privacy laws that require companies to obtain opt-in consent for the collection of sensitive data, which typically includes biometrics. Not every state, though, has strict privacy laws.
You can see each state’s privacy laws by clicking this link.
If homeowners do consent to the conditions, people like delivery drivers, mail carriers, and pedestrians walking by are never asked if they do.
According to WSOC, the detailed alerts can get specific. While Wickersham and his photographer were getting Ring camera video for this report, the alert from that camera said there was a “person moving with a camera on a tripod.”