Krishnamoorthi Raises Alarm Over Ring’s New AI “Search Party” Feature, Citing Privacy and Civil Liberties Concerns

WASHINGTON — Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL), Ranking Member of the House Oversight Subcommittee on Health Care and Financial Services, sent a letter yesterday to Ring raising serious concerns about the company’s new artificial intelligence feature, “Search Party,” warning that the technology could expand neighborhood surveillance and threaten Americans’ privacy and Fourth Amendment protections.

“I am writing to express deep concern over a commercial Ring aired during Super Bowl LX regarding a new feature called ‘Search Party,’” Krishnamoorthi wrote. “While finding lost pets is an admirable mission, the use of AI to scan doorbell camera recordings raises serious privacy concerns related to the potential for mass surveillance of people and implications for 4th Amendment rights.”

The letter highlights how the feature could affect millions of Americans whose homes and communities fall within Ring’s camera network.

“As described, 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,” Krishnamoorthi wrote.

He also raised concerns about the program’s default settings and the scope of data collection.

“Because this program is opt-out, the Search Party function is automatically enabled for Ring devices that save video recordings to the cloud and users have to go through a six-step process within the Ring app to disable the technology,” Krishnamoorthi continued. “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 letter further warns that the feature could enable monitoring near sensitive locations and expand AI-driven tracking beyond its stated purpose.

“The Search Party feature also means that Ring has the ability to search a vast network of privately-owned Ring cameras that are constantly recording, including in and around sensitive locations like hospitals, schools, clinics, or courthouses,” Krishnamoorthi wrote. “Although Ring currently describes the Search Party function as a tool for identifying dogs, the video recordings captured by Ring cameras also include people, meaning that Ring cameras are conducting constant monitoring without the explicit consent of the Ring camera owner or the individuals captured by the doorbell cameras.”

Krishnamoorthi requested documents and information from Ring byMarch 12, 2026, and posed the following questions:

1. A detailed explanation of how Ring devices collect, classify, and track video recordings and data, including but not limited to how that data is used in connection with Ring’s new AI feature “Search Party”;

2. A detailed explanation of how Ring determines what personally identifiable information is stored on Ring cameras, and whether and how that information is used for training AI models;

3. Ring’s policies and procedures regarding the collection and storage of Ring camera footage and related data, including but not limited to how and when law enforcement and other third-party entities can access that data and whether Ring requires a warrant, subpoena, or court order in order to share that data with law enforcement;

4. Documents and communications related to the use or potential of Search Party or other Ring doorbell camera features to identify individuals, including but not limited to efforts to prevent or respond to criminal activity;

5. A detailed description of what Ring camera footage and related data is shared with Flock and the permissions granted to Flock to store, use, and/or share that information;

6. A detailed description of how Ring responds to requests for information from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), the United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), and any other federal or state law enforcement agency; and

7. Any contracts, memoranda of understanding, or agreements between Ring and any federal agency, including but not limited to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), the United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), or any other federal or state law enforcement agency.

The full letter is available here.