Ring Doorbell Face Scans 2025: No Consent Required

🎥 What Happened in December

Amazon's Ring cameras started scanning and storing faces. Every visitor. Every delivery driver. Every passerby.

"Familiar Faces" rolled out to Ring device owners in the United States on December 9, 2025. Off by default (they say). Can store untagged faces for up to six months. No consent from the people being scanned.^[1]^[4]

Mysteriously not available in Illinois, Texas, or Portland. Wonder why.^[1]

📌 Update (October 2026)

This piece was written in November 2025, before the feature shipped. Since then:

It launched. Familiar Faces began rolling out to US Ring device owners on December 9, 2025, letting owners build a catalogue of up to 50 named faces and get alerts that identify familiar visitors instead of just reporting that someone is at the door.^[4]
Amazon says it is opt-in and disabled by default. Ring also says the biometric data is processed in the cloud and is not used to train AI models, and that it could not identify every location a person was detected at even if law enforcement asked.^[4]^[6]
It is being sued. Virginia resident Charles Sigwalt filed a class-action complaint in Seattle federal court on June 1, 2026, alleging that Ring's "Familiar Faces" feature scans people who pass by the doorbell and stores a "face print" that lets the company re-identify them, without their knowledge or consent. A first amended complaint followed on June 8, and the docket now lists two more plaintiffs.^[5]^[6]
Amazon and Ring asked the court to throw the case out in September 2026.^[6]

👁️ What "Familiar Faces" Actually Does

Ring's pitch: identify the people who regularly come to your door, so you get a notification naming them instead of a generic "someone is at the door" alert. Amazon says the feature can hold a catalogue of up to 50 faces.^[4]

The reality:

Scans every face that approaches
Creates biometric faceprints
Compares against database
Labels people in your alerts
Stores unrecognized faces for up to six months^[1]
Shares data with... who knows

Your front door is now a biometric checkpoint.

🚫 Why It's Banned in Three Places

The Legal No-Go Zones

Amazon won't launch in:^[1]^[2]

Illinois and Texas:

The two states with the strongest biometric privacy laws
Courts have already ruled that large technology companies can be held liable for scanning the faces of individuals without their explicit permission

Portland:

Restrictions on private sector facial recognition deployments
Amazon confirmed it is avoiding the city

Translation: Amazon knows the legal ground is contested. They're doing it everywhere else anyway.

💀 Who Gets Scanned Without Consent

📦

Delivery Workers

Amazon drivers (ironic)
FedEx, UPS, USPS
Food delivery (DoorDash, Uber Eats)
Instacart shoppers

Just doing their job. Now in a face database.

🏠

Neighbors & Visitors

Kids selling cookies
Political canvassers
Religious groups
Meter readers
Anyone walking by

"Walking onto a porch" = biometric collection. The feature "will necessarily require its cameras to collect a faceprint from" every person who comes into view of an enabled camera, the EFF says.^[2]

🚔

Law Enforcement Dreams

More than 2,000 law enforcement agencies had partnered with Ring by 2022^[1]
Request footage without warrants
Now with face matching
Protest surveillance goldmine

Every Ring is a police camera.

📊 The Numbers That Matter

Ring's Reach

2,000+ law enforcement agencies partnered by 2022^[1]
Police footage requests now come through warrants and emergency requests
Coverage: Most US neighborhoods

Data Retention

Up to six months: Untagged faces^[1]
60 days: Default video storage
Forever: If shared with police
Not currently: AI training data^[1]

Customer Revolt

Users canceling Ring subscriptions rather than accept face scanning^[8]
"Swift and harsh" backlash^[8]
Privacy groups mobilizing^[7]
Senator Markey demanding answers^[3]

🎯 Amazon's Weasel Words Decoded

What Amazon says vs. what they mean:

"Off by Default"

They say: "Feature will be off by default"^[1]^[7]

Reality: Until we push an update. Or make it opt-out. Or bundle it with features you want.

"Not Currently Using for AI Training"

They say: "Not currently using biometric info to train algorithms"^[1]

Reality: "Currently" doing a lot of work here. Amazon has not committed to avoiding such use in the future.^[1]

"You Control Your Data"

They say: "Users can delete faces anytime"

Reality: After we've already processed and stored them. Copies? Backups? Who knows.

🚔 The Police Connection Nobody Talks About

Ring's "Neighbors" app is a surveillance network:^[1]

Police used to be able to request footage through the app; Ring said in 2024 it would no longer allow that
Warrants and emergency requests still get a yes
Geofence requests for area footage
Now they can request face matches

Your helpful neighborhood watch is actually a police surveillance grid.

October 2025: Ring partnered with [Flock Safety so police can request doorbell footage](/articles/surveillance/flock-safety-20-billion-scans-ice-access) through Flock's platform. Your Ring now feeds the same network that scans 20 billion license plates monthly and gives ICE backdoor access.

Real Examples:

2020: Protest footage shared with police nationwide
2021: Ring gave footage without owner consent (emergency requests)
2024: Ring said police would no longer be able to request footage from residents through the app^[1]
2025: Face matching capability added

⚖️ The Legal Shitstorm Coming

Senator Ed Markey's Warning

Called it "a dramatic expansion of surveillance technology" with "vast new privacy and civil liberties risks."^[3]

Markey wrote to Amazon CEO Andrew Jassy urging the company to abandon the feature, arguing that ordinary people should not have to fear being tracked or recorded when walking past a home equipped with a Ring camera.^[3]

The Lawsuit

Filed June 1, 2026 in Seattle federal court by Virginia resident Charles Sigwalt, seeking class-action status^[5]
Amended June 8, with two more plaintiffs added to the federal docket^[6]
Central allegation: Familiar Faces scans anyone who passes the doorbell and collects a "face print" that lets Ring re-identify them, without their knowledge or consent^[5]
Amazon and Ring asked to dismiss the case in September 2026^[6]
EFF calls the feature "huge legal risk" in states that require opt-in consent^[2]

🛡️ How to Protect Yourself (And Others)

If You Own a Ring:

Don't enable Familiar Faces when it launches
Check settings monthly - they change defaults
Disable law enforcement cooperation:
- Control Center → Privacy Settings
- Turn off "Public Safety"
- Disable video requests
Set minimum retention (3 days if possible)
Consider switching to non-cloud cameras

If You're a Delivery Driver:

Wear sunglasses and hat
Mask still helps (for now)
Angle face away from cameras
Report to your union if you have one
Document which houses have Ring

For Everyone:

Support local facial recognition bans
Pressure Amazon to require consent
Choose alternatives when possible
Warn others about the feature

🔄 Better Alternatives Exist

Local-Only Options

Ubiquiti UniFi: Self-hosted, no cloud
Reolink: Local storage options
Eufy: On-device processing (mostly)

Privacy-Focused

Arlo: End-to-end encryption option
Logitech Circle: Apple HomeKit Secure Video
DIY: Raspberry Pi + MotionEye

Old School

Regular doorbell (revolutionary!)
Peephole (works offline!)
Actually answering door (human contact!)

📅 What Happens Next

These are the predictions this piece made in November 2025, and where they landed:

December 2025

Familiar Faces launches
Mass data collection begins
First non-consensual scans
Customer backlash peaks

It launched on December 9, 2025.^[4]

Early 2026

First lawsuits filed
State investigations expand
Police integration "testing"
Feature creep begins

The first lawsuit landed on June 1, 2026.^[5]

Long Term

Federal regulation attempts
More state bans
AI training "experiments"
Full police integration

🌐 The Bigger Picture

This isn't just about Ring. It's the model:

Launch product without controversial feature
Get massive install base
Add surveillance features later
Make it "opt-out" eventually
Share with law enforcement
Profit from surveillance capitalism

Google Nest did it. Apple might. Every smart device follows this playbook.

✊ How to Fight Back

Individual Actions:

☐ Cancel Ring subscription before December
☐ Leave negative reviews mentioning privacy
☐ Switch to local-storage alternatives
☐ Warn neighbors about the feature
☐ Document if you're scanned without consent

Collective Resistance:

☐ Join class action lawsuits
☐ Support EFF/ACLU challenges
☐ Pressure local government for bans
☐ Organize delivery driver unions to resist
☐ Demand federal biometric privacy law

💰 The Money Behind the Surveillance

Why Amazon really wants your face:

Government contracts: Surveillance as a service
Insurance partnerships: Share data, reduce premiums
Retail tracking: Know who shops where
Ad targeting: Visitor profiles = marketing gold

You're not the customer. You're the product. So is everyone who walks by.

🎯 The Bottom Line

Amazon turned 20 million doorbells into facial recognition scanners. No consent required unless you live where they'd get sued.

Every delivery driver, every visitor, every kid selling cookies - all getting their faces stolen and stored.

The feature is "off by default" - until it isn't. The data "isn't used for AI training" - currently.

Your doorbell is now a corporate surveillance node. Act accordingly.

Flock Safety: Ring's New Surveillance Partner - In October 2025, Ring partnered with Flock to let police request doorbell footage
How to Defeat Facial Recognition - Protecting yourself from camera surveillance
Smart Home Surveillance Risks - How connected devices track you
Facial Recognition Bans in the US - Where biometric laws protect you