Report: Amazon Ring Doorbells May Begin Using Biometric Data to Spy on Your Neighborhood

Amazon reportedly filed a patent recently that suggests its Ring doorbell cameras may soon be able to identify “suspicious” people by scanning their skin texture, walking style, and voice. This represents the latest in Amazon’s growing push into biometric data collection.

Business Insider reports that e-commerce and tech giant Amazon recently filed a patent for its Ring doorbell cameras that describes new tech enabling the devices to identify “suspicious” people based on their skin texture, walking style, and voice.

The Ring patent, filed and awarded in the United States, is named “Neighborhood Alert Mode,” and essentially works as a digital neighborhood watch device. The patent would allow Ring doorbells to share a picture or video of a person it decides is suspicious to other Righ users in the area. Their doorbells will then begin recording the “suspicious” person even if the target never approaches the homeowner’s door.

Amazon’s patent lists a startling list of characters that could be used to identify “suspicious” people, including their body shape and “odor/scent.”

Biometric identifiers can be physiological characteristics and/or behavioral characteristics. Physiological characteristics may be related to the shape of the body. Examples include, but are not limited to, fingerprints, palm veins, facial recognition, three-dimensional facial recognition, skin texture analysis, DNA, palm prints, hand geometry, iris recognition, retina recognition, and odor/scent recognition. Behavioral characteristics may be related to the pattern of behavior of a person, including, but not limited to, typing rhythm, gait, and voice recognition.

Amazon’s Ring devices have faced serious security issues in the past with outside hackers managing to gain access to the devices and talk to people that use them in their homes.
Read more at Business Insider here.

Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or contact via secure email at the address lucasnolan@protonmail.com