Ring Cameras Will Soon ID Everyone Who Passes
Amazon is adding facial recognition to ring cameras starting next month, except in the three places where it's illegal.
That should tell you something.
The feature lets ring owners create a database of familiar faces.
But to identify who's familiar, the camera has to scan everyone, creating what's called a faceprint, a unique biometric map of your face.
Amazon says the future won't be available in Illinois, Texas or Portland.
Why?
Because those states have strict biometric privacy laws.
They're not blocking it to be nice.
They're blocking it because they know they'll get sued.
Google paid $1.4 billion for capturing facial geometry without consent.
Similarly, Facebook paid over $2 billion and discontinued “tag suggestions.”
The Electronic Frontier Foundation points out Amazon knows this, but doing it anyway, just not in states where the laws have teeth.
Your face, the mail carrier's face, kids selling cookies, all scanned and stored for up to six months, even if you're never tagged.
Source Material:
>Link to EFF article
>Link to Washington Post article
>Link to Biometric Information Privacy Act Wikipedia page