Amazon is facing a class-action lawsuit, filed on Monday, alleging privacy violations stemming from its Ring doorbell cameras. The suit, initiated in Seattle by Virginia resident Charles Sigwalt, claims that Ring’s "Familiar Faces" feature unlawfully stores images of passersby without their explicit consent.
Ring first announced the "Familiar Faces" feature last September, immediately drawing criticism from consumer protection organizations like the EFF and Senator Ed Markey (D-MA). Despite this pushback, the company proceeded with its plans to launch the feature in December.
"Familiar Faces" is designed to allow Ring users to identify individuals who frequently visit their homes through AI facial recognition technology. This enables the device to recognize regular guests, such as family members, mail carriers, or neighbors, and deliver more specific notifications like “Dad is at the door,” rather than a generic “a person is at the door.” While Ring users must opt in to utilize this feature, privacy advocates have consistently pointed out that individuals merely walking past these doorbells have not consented to these facial recognition scans. This specific concern is central to the current class-action lawsuit.
According to the lawsuit, “Millions of other Americans passed by a Ring security camera and unknowingly had their facial recognition information collected.”
Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding the lawsuit. However, at the time of the feature's release, the company stated that all face data is encrypted and never shared, with unidentified faces being automatically removed after 30 days.
Amazon’s Ring has a history of behaviors raising user privacy concerns. In 2023, Amazon settled with the FTC, paying a $5.8 million fine over allegations that the company’s staff and contractors had improperly accessed private videos from women customers. The FTC’s complaint detailed that every employee possessed full access to every customer video, even if the worker had no legitimate need to view that footage. Ring has also maintained relationships with law enforcement, at one point granting police the ability to request Ring footage from users without a judicial warrant.
The company faced similar public outcry after airing a Super Bowl advertisement introducing "Search Party," an AI-powered feature designed to use Ring footage to find lost pets. Days later, Ring canceled its plans to partner with video surveillance company Flock Safety, which has reportedly provided footage to ICE and other federal agencies. When Ring founder Jamie Siminoff spoke with TechCrunch after the cancellation of the Flock Safety arrangement, he indicated that the deal would have created an "unmanageable workload."
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