Video doorbells are incredibly popular these days, but now they’re getting a new feature that’s raising concerns about privacy. Ring doorbells now have a feature called "Familiar Faces," which has the ability to scan, store and potentially identify the face of anyone who walks up to the camera. That could be a potential burglar, or it could be your neighbor coming to borrow a cup of sugar. From there, your neighbor’s face scan could end up on an Amazon cloud server, without their knowledge or consent. Familiar Faces is inactive by default, meaning owners must opt in and activate it if they want to use the feature. The concern is that consent is not being required before a person’s biometric data can be collected. That means your face — or your kids’ faces — could be saved and stored on a server somewhere without you even knowing. When you don’t have control over your own data, there’s a risk that it could be used for purposes beyond your control. While Amazon says that facial data is stored in the cloud for up to six months, it’s not like a password. Your face is your face, and if your face print is stolen, you can’t exactly reset it like you could a compromised password. Privacy groups warn that this collection of biometric data could be used for unwarranted government surveillance. Some states, including Illinois, Texas and Oregon, have already passed laws limiting the gathering of biometric data. As biometric technology becomes increasingly available and faces more intense scrutiny from legislators, users can expect the list of jurisdictions limiting its use to grow.
