Lawmaker calls facial recognition on doorbell cameras a ‘privacy nightmare’

Ring, the maker of popular doorbell cameras, said device owners who capture people’s faces may retain the biometric data gathered indefinitely, according to a letter the company sent to a lawmaker.

Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) asked Ring in October about its privacy policies and how it intends to protect individuals recorded by its new facial recognition technology feature called Familiar Faces. The program, which was released this week, allows Ring owners to easily run face scans of anyone who comes to their door. Ring is owned by tech giant Amazon.

In Ring’s response to Markey, the company also said that individuals whose faces are captured by the Familiar Faces technology have no recourse for ensuring their data is deleted beyond asking individual Ring owners to erase it. As a result delivery drivers are forced to “potentially make separate deletion requests at hundreds or thousands of homes,” according to a Markey press release.

“Despite my warnings, Amazon unleashed a new privacy nightmare on the American people by releasing its Ring doorbell facial recognition feature without any meaningful privacy protections,” Markey said in a statement. “This is a giant step toward a dystopian future where Americans cannot leave their homes without being tracked and surveilled.”

Amazon Vice President of Public Policy Brian Huseman told Markey that Ring owners should ensure they are following local laws governing biometric data collection. In Illinois, for example, the data collection facilitated by Familiar Faces is illegal.