Ring, the smart doorbell and security company, has just updated their privacy policy. Effective from 19th December 2017.
Lurking in it we found something interesting:
“Where permitted by applicable law, you may choose to use additional functionality in your Ring product that, through video data from your device, can recognize facial characteristics of familiar visitors.”
This strongly suggests to us that a facial recognition software update is in development and could be released soon. The update even gives an example of how the feature will work, allowing different notifications for family, friends or strangers.
“For example, you may want to receive different notifications from your Ring Doorbell depending on whether a visitor is a stranger or a member of your household. If you choose to activate this feature, we obtain certain facial feature information about the visitors you ask your Ring product to recognize. We require your explicit consent before you can take advantage of this feature.”
This is very exciting as adds an entirely new level of security to an already outstanding product.
As it has been added to the global privacy policy we are optimistic this will be released to all products, not just the Ring Pro or Ring 2.
We cannot help but feel this is a direct response to the recently announced Nest Hello. Nests first move into the smart doorbell space. Nest Hello is being launched with facial recognition as standard and is due to be released in early 2018.
What do you think of this exciting development?
We have asked Ring for a comment and will update if we receive one. Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook or Twitter for the latest updates.
Don’t forget to read our Ring Doorbell review – for all the information on Ring.