More Biometric Doorbells

Expect more biometrics for security. 

In the Future, Amazon's Ring Doorbell Might Use Biometric Data to Surveil Neighborhoods

The company has been awarded patents for using smell and skin texture to identify a "suspicious" person.  By Florence Ion

I’ve always wondered when smell-o-vision would make its debut in the gadget world, but I didn’t imagine that Amazon would be the company to make it happen. Given that fact, you might not be surprised to learn that its actual implementation sounds a little problematic, to say the least.

The company filed patents that suggest detecting a person by smell is a future possibility for its doorbell cameras. But that’s not even the extent of it. The Ring doorbells could also scan to identify “suspicious” people based on their skin texture, the way they walk, and their voice. What could possibly go wrong?

The discovery comes from Insider, which looked through more than a dozen patents recently awarded to Amazon. They found that altogether, the patents outline a network of weirdly sophisticated surveillance that sounds not at all terrifying.

One Ring patent, filed and awarded in the U.S., is titled “Neighborhood Alert Mode.” At its core, it’s essentially community surveillance, with a dash of suburbanites-complaining-on-Nextdoor energy. Instead of your neighbor typing out a loaded post describing a person they deem to be a threat to the neighorhood—because what could go wrong there?—all they have to do is share a picture or video of someone they decide is suspicious to other Neighborhood users within the vicinity. Ring will then prompt other video doorbells within the network to start recording the so-called suspicious person, even if they don’t approach the front door.  .... .