Ring Doorbells Can Now Identify Faces—But Experts Say It’s a Major Privacy Invasion. Here’s Everything You Need to Know
You’re tucked in for the evening, and the doorbell rings. Do you answer it? Or maybe your teenager is home alone and calls you about a strange noise outside. If you have a security camera or video doorbell, you know what to do—quickly, easily and without a trip to the actual door.
Video doorbells are incredibly popular for these reasons and plenty of others. But now, some Ring doorbells have a new feature that’s raising concerns about privacy: the ability to scan, store and potentially identify the face of anyone who walks up to the camera. That could be a would-be burglar—or it could be you, heading over to your neighbor’s place to borrow a cup of sugar. From there, your face scan could end up on an Amazon cloud server, without your knowledge or consent.
Amazon rolled out this technology in December 2025, and it immediately stirred up some controversy. We spoke to Yelena Ambartsumian, an AI governance and privacy lawyer, to learn more about this new feature and its potential legal and security implications. Here’s everything you need to know about it, including why Ring doorbell owners might want to think twice before using it.
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How does the new facial identification feature work?
Amazon calls this new Ring doorbell feature “Familiar Faces.” It uses AI-powered facial recognition to scan and identify the faces of anyone who comes into view of a compatible Ring camera. Intended as a convenience feature, Familiar Faces lets Ring doorbell owners “tag” specific people, such as friends, family members and other known visitors. This then allows the doorbell to send a unique notification when a familiar person is identified.
To accomplish this, Ring doorbells will scan and store a biometric “face print” for frequent visitors. Each new facial scan is then compared against the stored database of saved faces. When Familiar Faces is active, this process will happen with every person who steps within scanning distance of a Ring camera.
Familiar Faces is inactive by default; Ring doorbell owners must opt in and activate it themselves if they want to use this feature. And in case you’re wondering, Amazon claims that stored facial recognition data will not be used to train other AI models.
Which Ring doorbells offer it?
Amazon rolled out the Familiar Faces feature in December, but only certain models of Ring doorbells and security cameras support it—namely, recent models that are compatible with cloud integration and other AI features like Alexa+ Greetings and Search Party. Amazon hasn’t provided a comprehensive list of compatible devices, but a few Ring models that are known to support Familiar Faces include the new Wired Doorbell Pro and Spotlight Cam Pro.
Older Ring cameras that don’t support these technologies won’t have access to Familiar Faces. Plus, Familiar Faces requires a Ring Home Premium subscription. That said, users can expect these AI-powered technologies to be integrated with current and future generations of Ring devices (although they’ll likely remain paywalled behind the Ring Home Premium service).
What are the privacy concerns?
When the Familiar Faces feature is active, a Ring doorbell or home-security camera will scan, collect and store the facial data of every person who comes within scanning range—so it’s not hard to see why the rollout has raised questions about privacy and laws around personal data collection. Here are three major issues to be aware of.
Lack of consent
Typically, consent is required before a person’s biometric data can be collected. “If the Ring face recognition function identifies every passerby without obtaining prior consent, then this may be considered a violation of some biometric data laws,” Ambartsumian says. (We’ll explore the evolving legal issues ahead.) These privacy implications affect you even if you don’t own a video doorbell, as it means your face—or your kids’ faces—could be saved and stored on a server somewhere without your knowledge or consent. And when you don’t have agency over your own data, there’s a risk that it will be used for purposes beyond your control.
Questions about how Amazon handles biometric data
Amazon says that facial data is stored in the cloud for up to six months. This is different from other smart home devices with similar facial recognition technology, such as Google Nest cameras, which only store data locally. But it brings up another security concern regarding potential data breaches. Unlike a password or even a credit card number, biometric data is permanent. Your face is your face; if your face print is stolen, you can’t exactly reset it like you could reset a compromised password.
Potential government surveillance
Finally, privacy groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation warn that this collection of biometric data could be used for unwarranted government surveillance. For example, if Amazon is compelled to hand over stored face-print data to the police, this biometric information could theoretically be used to track the movements and whereabouts of innocent people, which could constitute another privacy violation.
Cameras are everywhere now, and police are increasingly relying on them to track movements of suspected criminals or locate missing persons. While this can have its benefits for safety, it brings up the age-old question of the trade-off between security and privacy. “It cannot be the expectation that once we leave our homes, we are consenting to sharing our biometric information,” Ambartsumian says.
How serious are these concerns?
They inhabit a legal gray area, particularly when you consider that privacy laws and legal definitions vary across jurisdictions. To some extent, this is a matter of state and local laws lagging behind rapid technological development. And there is debate about what, exactly, is considered biometric data. “In several states, information is not considered biometric information if it was obtained through the use of publicly available photos and videos,” Ambartsumian says.
However, she doesn’t think that distinction will last much longer: “We should expect to see this loophole closed in the coming years, as it is now impossible to participate in public life (leave your house, go for a walk, visit any business) without having your image or likeness captured in public by a private camera.”
In fact, legislation and lawsuits are changing the privacy landscape right now. Here’s how.
Some states already restrict this type of data collection
Some jurisdictions have already passed laws limiting biometric data gathering. “The most stringent laws on the collection and processing of biometric data are in Illinois and Texas, as well as in Portland, Oregon—the latter of which bans the use of facial recognition technology by private entities in places of public accommodation (think: retail stores),” Ambartsumian says.
That means the Familiar Faces feature won’t be available to any Ring camera users in Illinois, Texas and Portland. Even if you’ve got a shiny, new 4K-capable Ring doorbell and a Ring Home Premium, you’ll be locked out of the feature. Elsewhere, privacy laws are evolving. “Although many other states have comprehensive laws on biometric data or laws treating biometric information as sensitive personal information, the requirements and stringency vary,” Ambartsumian says.
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. Some lawmakers, such as U.S. Senator Ed Markey from Massachusetts, have even called on Amazon to abandon its facial recognition technology altogether.
Companies have been forced to pay up in civil court
Biometric data collection faces increased scrutiny in civil courts as well. A recent class action lawsuit involving Clearview AI was settled for a whopping $51 million paid out to the plaintiffs. “Clearview AI involved a private company using publicly available photos and images to create a facial recognition database,” Ambartsumian says, “which it then sold to private companies and enforcement agencies.”
Additionally, Google paid more than $1 billion to settle a class action lawsuit in Texas regarding its Nest cameras. Meta, the company that owns Facebook, paid more than $2 billion between two lawsuits in Illinois and Texas. Even if lawmakers don’t crack down on facial recognition technology, companies may decide expensive lawsuit settlements aren’t worth the risk.
If you decide to use this feature, follow these best practices
The fact remains that, as of now, this facial recognition technology remains legal and available to Ring doorbell owners in most U.S. jurisdictions. If you own a compatible model, have a Ring Home Premium subscription and are considering opting into the Familiar Faces feature, here’s what you need to consider.
- Decide if you really need it. Familiar Faces is turned off by default. Before activating it, weigh the feature’s convenience against the privacy (and potential legal) implications of scanning the faces of everyone who approaches your door. Familiar Faces is a convenience feature that aims to reduce notification fatigue; it’s not a security feature. Your cameras and motion detectors are likely sufficient to meet your security needs already.
- Inform visitors of the feature. Consider posting a visible notice that your Ring doorbell or camera has this facial recognition technology enabled (ideally in a place where visitors can see it before they come within scanning distance). Ring offers official downloadable labels on its website if you need them.
- Know your local laws. Though the new Ring feature is currently legal across most of the country, the legal landscape surrounding facial recognition technology is evolving. Protect yourself by staying up to date with state and local laws regarding privacy and biometric data collection.
- Secure your account. If you haven’t already, set a strong password and enable two-factor authentication on your Ring account. This will limit the likelihood of your account getting compromised, including any connected biometric data stored in the cloud.
- Keep tabs on your face database. If possible, limit your Familiar Faces tags to people you really require it for, such as close friends and family members. Additionally, review and delete unused or unnecessary facial profiles periodically.
The Familiar Faces feature can be convenient, but we can’t ignore the privacy and security concerns it raises, especially in an age where home security cameras are everywhere. “While it was harder to run facial recognition technology even a few years ago, now it is relatively easy and available at mass scale,” says Ambartsumian. “The fear is always creating large databases for facial recognition purposes, which may be misused in the future by either private or public actors.”
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Reader’s Digest has published hundreds of articles on personal technology, arming readers with the knowledge to protect themselves against cybersecurity threats and internet scams as well as revealing the best tips, tricks and shortcuts for computers, cellphones, apps, texting, social media and more. For this piece, Lucas Coll tapped his experience as a tech journalist to ensure that all information is accurate and offers the best possible advice to readers. We rely on credentialed experts with personal experience and know-how as well as primary sources including tech companies, professional organizations and academic institutions. We verify all facts and data and revisit them over time to ensure they remain accurate and up to date. Read more about our team, our contributors and our editorial policies.
Sources:
- Yelena Ambartsumian, AI governance and privacy lawyer and founding attorney at Ambart Law; email interview, January 2026
- Amazon: “Ring introduces its first-ever 4K cameras and AI feature that helps find lost pets”
- Electronic Freedom Foundation: “The Legal Case Against Ring’s Face Recognition Feature”
- Ring: “Where to Download a Ring Sticker”
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