- Amazon-owned Ring faces potential class-action lawsuit, $5M+ in damages
- Familiar Faces does not work in some states due to privacy protections
- “Profound privacy failure” affects millions of Americans
Doorbell giant Ring, an Amazon company, is now facing a proposed class action in the US over its ‘Familiar Faces’ feature, which uses AI to identify and tag people arriving at the door.
The lawsuit, filed by a Virginia resident, accuses the company of collecting and storing biometric information about him without his consent when he visited the homes of friends and relatives.
According to the complaint, the technology collects and stores facial biometrics from anyone who appears within the camera’s field of view — whether they visit the house or not.
Call accused of collecting and storing facial biometrics
Charles Sigwalt, the Virginia resident behind the class-action complaint, noted that Ring’s system creates and stores so-called facial prints of anyone who comes within range of a supported camera.
The complaint seeks at least $5 million in damages, but that figure could rise if a larger class of affected individuals is approved.
It’s worth noting that Familiar Faces is only approved for use in some states – Illinois, Texas and Portland, Oregon are protected by stricter biometric privacy regulations.
It’s not the first time the Amazon-owned company has faced heat — in 2023, it paid a $5.8 million settlement to the FTC over allegations of employee access to customer videos.
The company also faced recent backlash over a Super Bowl-advertised service that used its camera network to help locate lost dogs — critics warned of neighborhood surveillance.
In the complaint, the plaintiff concludes that Ring has created a “profound breach of privacy for millions of people who are now being tracked by Amazon.”
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