Following Dystopian Super Bowl Ad, Markey Again Calls on Amazon to End Facial Recognition Technology in Ring Doorbells

Letter Text (PDF)

Washington (February 11, 2026) - Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), member of the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, today wrote to Andrew Jassy, CEO of Amazon, urging Amazon to discontinue its facial recognition technology (FRT), "Familiar Faces," embedded in its Ring doorbells. Senator Markey wrote this letter following public backlash to Amazon's Super Bowl commercial, which sought to promote the image recognition technology embedded in its Ring doorbells. Senator Markey previously wrote to Amazon in October, requesting that the company abandon its plans to integrate FRT into its Ring doorbells and asking key questions about Amazon's privacy practices.

In the letter, Senator Markey wrote, "Amazon apparently intended its Super Bowl commercial to demonstrate that its new technologies could identify lost pets. Instead, Amazon inadvertently revealed the serious privacy and civil liberties risks attendant to these types of Artificial Intelligence-enabled image recognition technologies. And notably unmentioned in Amazon's commercial is that it rolled out FRT in its Ring doorbells last year. It's not hard to imagine the ways that Amazon-or law enforcement-could abuse this feature."

Senator Markey continued, "Unfortunately, Amazon has consistently failed to prioritize public privacy with its Ring doorbells, especially in rolling out FRT last year. As I explained in my October letter asking Amazon to pause that rollout, this technology represents a significant expansion of Ring's privacy risks, including allowing Ring doorbells to collect biometric information on anyone in their video range - without the individual's consent and often without their knowledge. Amazon's response to my letter confirmed these privacy gaps."

Senator Markey concluded, "The massive backlash to Ring's Super Bowl advertisement confirmed the public's opposition to Ring's constant monitoring and invasive image recognition algorithms. Social media posts with thousands of engagements describe the feature as 'dystopian' and raise alarms about the expansion of mass surveillance into residential neighborhoods. Users said they would never purchase a Ring doorbell or indicated that they would remove their Ring doorbell from their home. Given this public opposition and the technology's serious risks to privacy and civil liberties, I once again urge Amazon to immediately discontinue these dangerous features."

Senator Markey has consistently questioned Amazon's Ring doorbell data privacy practices and relationship with law enforcement.

• In December, Senator Markey released the latest findings in response to his probe into Ring.
• In October, Senator Markey wrote to Amazon requesting that it abandon its plans to integrate FRT into Ring doorbells and asked key questions about Amazon's privacy practices. In response to Senator Markey's October letter, Amazon revealed that Ring's privacy protections only apply to device owners and not members of the public.
• In 2022, Senator Markey sent a follow up letter to Amazon, highlighting the company's ongoing privacy violations and unchecked data sharing with police departments.
• In 2019, Senator Markey sent two letters to Amazon, raising concerns about Ring's partnership with over 400 police departments and Amazon's alarming disregard for basic privacy protections.

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