This new Ring camera feature is seriously creeping people out

Amazon recently announced a new facial recognition feature for Ring doorbells and cameras called “Familiar Faces.” The feature isn’t even out yet, but it’s already raising eyebrows because of how popular Ring security cameras have become over the years.

Familiar Faces lets you tag people you know using facial recognition. So the next time your neighbor, a friend, or the mail carrier walks by your door, you’ll get personalized notifications and can quickly find footage of them in the Ring app. Basically, your Ring camera will remember faces you’ve labeled and show that context across your videos and notifications.

The feature rolls out in December for new Ring doorbells and cameras. It’s off by default, and only available to those who pay for a Ring Home Premium subscription.

Why are people freaked out?

What’s really creeping people out is the privacy nightmare the new feature could create. A Ring spokesperson told The Washington Post that users themselves are responsible for following any state laws requiring consent before identifying people with facial recognition. That itself is a major gray area. You could end up breaking the law without even realizing it.

On the other hand, no one wants to be filmed without consent, so people who don’t even use a Ring camera could unwillingly and unknowingly be included in video recordings.

Because of privacy restrictions, Amazon says the feature won’t be available in Illinois, Texas, or Portland, Oregon. The laws in these states prohibit collecting or storing facial data without explicit permission.

A Reddit thread (h/t The Street) shows growing concerns among Ring users as well as folks who walk by these cameras often:

“Can’t wait for my check for $7.29 when they get a class action for doing this,” said a user.

“I really don’t like how many of these I walk past every time I go outside,” another person commented.

The thread is full of such comments with people expressing similar sentiments. Some users are even thinking of canceling their Ring subscriptions or moving to competing devices.

While Ring is taking heat for the new rollout, it’s worth noting that Google’s Nest cameras already have a similar “familiar face” feature. Newer Nest models store face data locally on the device, rather than uploading it to the cloud, and it’s encrypted for extra protection.

In the case of Amazon, users aren’t convinced that the company can handle such sensitive data responsibly.