How to Disable Ring's "Familiar Faces" Facial Recognition

By State of Surveillance Published: 2025-12-15

What Happened

On December 9, 2025, Amazon rolled out "Familiar Faces"—a facial recognition feature for Ring video doorbells [1]. Your doorbell can now identify visitors by their face and send you personalized alerts like "Mom at Front Door."

The feature is opt-in and disabled by default. But if you enabled it—or want to make sure it stays off—here's how.

Why You Should Care

Ring doorbells now capture and store biometric data of everyone who approaches your door. That includes:

  • Delivery drivers
  • Neighbors walking by
  • Friends and family
  • Strangers
  • Anyone within camera range

The concerns:

  • Ring already partners with Flock Safety, whose cameras are used by ICE and federal agencies
  • Ring paid a $5.8 million FTC fine in 2023 for employees accessing customer videos
  • Police can request Ring footage through Flock's network
  • Amazon claims biometric data won't train AI models, but Ring's "Search Party" feature already tracks people across multiple cameras

Senator Ed Markey and the EFF have called for abandoning the feature entirely [2].

Check If Familiar Faces Is Enabled

  1. Open the Ring app on your phone
  2. Tap the three lines (≡) in the top left
  3. Tap Devices
  4. Select your Ring doorbell
  5. Tap Device Settings
  6. Look for "Familiar Faces" or "Face Recognition"

If you don't see the option, either:

  • Your device doesn't support the feature yet (older models)
  • The feature hasn't rolled out to your region
  • It's disabled by default (good—leave it that way)

How to Disable Familiar Faces

Method 1: From Device Settings

  1. Open the Ring app
  2. Tap ≡ Menu → Devices
  3. Select your Ring doorbell
  4. Tap Device Settings
  5. Tap Familiar Faces
  6. Toggle OFF

Method 2: From Account Settings

  1. Open the Ring app
  2. Tap ≡ Menu → Account
  3. Tap Privacy Settings
  4. Look for Face Recognition or Familiar Faces
  5. Toggle OFF

Method 3: Delete All Stored Faces

If you previously used the feature and want to remove stored facial data:

  1. Open the Ring app
  2. Go to Device Settings → Familiar Faces
  3. Tap Manage Faces or Face Library
  4. Select each face and tap Delete
  5. Confirm deletion

Note: Amazon says unnamed faces auto-delete after 30 days. But "delete" doesn't always mean gone—the data may persist in backups or training sets.

Additional Ring Privacy Settings to Check

While you're in settings, review these other privacy options:

Disable Shared Video Access

  1. Device Settings → Shared Users
  2. Review who has access to your video
  3. Remove anyone who shouldn't

Disable Neighbors Feed

Ring's "Neighbors" app shares video clips publicly:

  1. ≡ Menu → Control Center
  2. Tap Neighbors
  3. Toggle OFF or limit what you share

Disable Police Access

Ring used to let police request footage directly. They removed that feature in 2024, but you should still:

  1. ≡ Menu → Control Center
  2. Check Video Request Settings
  3. Make sure you're not auto-sharing anything

Disable Audio Recording

Ring doorbells record audio by default:

  1. Device Settings → Video Settings
  2. Toggle Audio Streaming and Recording OFF

Enable End-to-End Encryption

Ring offers optional end-to-end encryption for videos:

  1. ≡ Menu → Control Center
  2. Tap Video Encryption
  3. Follow setup to enable E2EE

Warning: This prevents Ring from accessing your videos, but it also disables some features like cloud playback on certain devices.

The Nuclear Option: Replace Ring Entirely

Disabling features doesn't change the underlying problem: Ring is an Amazon product that has repeatedly partnered with law enforcement and been caught with security issues.

Privacy-respecting alternatives:

  • Eufy Video Doorbell: Local storage, no monthly fees, no cloud required
  • Amcrest: Local recording, RTSP support for self-hosting
  • Reolink: Local storage options, no mandatory cloud
  • UniFi Protect: Self-hosted, professional-grade (requires NVR)

For maximum privacy: Any doorbell camera that stores locally and doesn't require cloud connectivity.

What Ring Says vs. What We Know

Amazon's Claims

  • Familiar Faces is opt-in
  • Biometric data won't train AI
  • Face data is encrypted
  • Users control their data

The Reality

  • Ring already does cross-camera tracking ("Search Party")
  • Ring partnered with Flock Safety (ICE access)
  • $5.8M fine for employee access to videos
  • Breach exposed passwords and addresses

Amazon's privacy promises have expiration dates. Today's opt-in feature becomes tomorrow's default. Today's "we don't share" becomes tomorrow's partnership announcement.

Summary: Quick Settings Checklist

  • ☐ Familiar Faces: OFF
  • ☐ Delete stored faces: All removed
  • ☐ Neighbors sharing: OFF or limited
  • ☐ Audio recording: OFF (optional)
  • ☐ End-to-end encryption: ON
  • ☐ Shared users: Reviewed and trimmed
  • ☐ Video request settings: Restricted

Or: Replace Ring with a local-storage alternative and eliminate the problem entirely.

Related Guides

References

  1. TechCrunch - Amazon's Ring rolls out AI-powered facial recognition feature (December 9, 2025)
  2. Senator Ed Markey statement on Ring facial recognition, December 2025
  3. FTC - Ring $5.8 million settlement (May 2023)