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Krishnamoorthi flags mass surveillance risks in Ring AI
The Congressman demanded detailed responses and documents from Ring on a variety of concerns, including agreements with ICE and Enforcement Agencies.
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Jeffin T. Kaleekal - Mon, 02, Mar 2026
- 02:51 EST
- 16
Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi / REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi has expressed concerns about privacy and mass surveillance over the newly launched 'Search Party' feature in Ring doorbell cameras.
The new feature gained attention after Ring aired a commercial during Super Bowl LX regarding a new feature called 'Search Party', which, according to Ring, uses artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities in Ring doorbell cameras to search recordings for lost pets.
Explaining the functioning of their product, Ring claimed, " “When a pet owner posts about a lost dog in the Ring app, nearby
participating outdoor Ring cameras in the neighborhood begin looking for potential matches."
It continued, "If your [Ring camera] spots what might be the missing dog, it lets you know. You see the photo alongside footage from your camera, then can choose to share the video with the pet’s owner.”
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Krishnamoorthi, in his letter to Ring noted that this feature allows Ring to access and scan recordings from cameras throughout a neighborhood, "creating a 24/7 surveillance network in a community with only passive consent from the camera owner and limited at best awareness from the neighbors in the same community.”
He also pointed out that Ring has presented this feature as an 'opt-out' feature, allowing Ring to automatically roll-in this feature to all devices and users having to go through a complex six-step process to opt-out of this feature.
He said, "This opt-out design is confusing for users, raises concerns of widespread unintentional surveillance of neighborhoods, and may leave people unaware of the full extent to which Ring and its parent company Amazon are able to monitor neighborhood activity."
The Congressman also demanded detailed responses and documents by Mar. 12, covering how Ring collects, classifies, and uses video data, the company's policies on storing personally identifiable information, its policy on data sharing with law enforcement and other third parties, its responses to federal agencies such as ICE, CBP, and USPIS and any related contracts or agreements with these agencies and communications on using features for identifying individuals or crime prevention.
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