Ring, the home security company known for its video doorbells and surveillance cameras, is actively promoting its latest features aimed at enhancing user privacy while leveraging artificial intelligence. All of the flagship capabilities The Recognition System ensures visitors are accurately identified through AI-powered facial recognition technology. Ring further promises its users absolute privacy. The move comes after the company recently attempted to calm growing privacy fears. The problems go beyond basic skepticism, particularly following its ostentatious and talent-free Super Bowl ad.
In December, Ring added an extremely troubling new feature, “Familiar Faces.” This makes it possible for users to create a catalog of 50 of their most active and repeat visitors! Users can get specific personalized notifications that let them know, for example, when “Mom at Front Door”—not just a generic motion alert. This nearly gamifies the way employees interact with their security infrastructure. This feature is an important part of our overall strategy. We’re creating a system of tens of millions of cameras that will employ AI-powered search and facial recognition on Americans.
Ring’s Super Bowl ad aimed to illustrate this ambition dramatically. The ad featured a map with blue circles shooting out like waves. This striking animation brought to life the overwhelming, invasive activation of surveillance cameras on a neighborhood grid, home by home. Though the intention of the ad was presumably to convey the unique interconnectedness of Ring devices, many critics believe it raises some dangerous and important privacy issues.
Ring’s promotional timing has been a little off too. Many observers fear the company’s move into AI recognition technology would exacerbate its intent to introduce invasive, customized surveillance practices. A constitutional observer noted the implications of such a network, stating, “They were, in effect, saying, we see you. We can get to you whenever we want to.”
To counteract this growing skepticism, Ring’s CEO Jamie Siminoff has been taking to the airwaves. He has been featured on such national platforms as CNN, NBC, and the New York Times. Critics have miscalculated and deeply misjudged the underlying premise and intent of Ring’s technology and how it’s designed to work, he says.
“If a customer, in the future, wanted to opt in to do something with that, maybe you could see that happening.” – Jamie Siminoff
Siminoff has been clear that the company’s aim is to offer users greater security without compromising their privacy. To that end, Ring has made moves to avoid the appearance of being associated with such incendiary partnerships. Recently, Ring ended its collaboration with Flock, a network of AI cameras used by law enforcement agencies such as ICE and local police. This surprising decision stemmed from two factors: the concern that the workload created by these joint ventures would be too burdensome and mutual fears over privacy ramifications.
Ring has distributed more than 100 million cameras. Today, they’re not just riding the success wave in residential security, they’re leading the charge in enterprise security as well. The company recently launched a new “elite” line of cameras and a new mobile security trailer product targeted to commercial enterprises.
The other feature that’s gotten a lot of love was Community Requests. This tool gives law enforcement the ability to contact Ring users in the immediate vicinity and request relevant footage from incidents. We recently relaunched this feature in September through a new partnership with Axon. In particular, many critics have raised alarms about how this will mean increased surveillance in our communities.
In spite of these pitfalls, as the SOD, Siminoff is now charged with promoting the benefits of this expanded surveillance capability. He contended that a video showing a masked figure attempting to obstruct a Google Nest camera lens demonstrates the need for more cameras on homes.
“I do believe if they had more [footage from Guthrie’s home], if there was more cameras on the house, I think we might have solved,” – Jamie Siminoff
Siminoff highlighted other future uses for their technology, such as locating missing persons. He did explain that Ring is looking into ways to assist in these situations. Yet, it is “definitely not” leading the charge on this effort at the moment.
Beyond its home security functionality, Ring recently rolled out features to help users locate lost or missing pets. This feature got lots of good press when it was articulated first. It’s just the latest of a few efforts to broaden Ring’s use beyond the bounds of classic, home-only security.
Privacy advocates are concerned about the ramifications that can be caused by mass implementing this new wave of AI-powered surveillance. As technology advances we will always need to partner security with the right element of privacy.