Amazon's Ring sued over facial recognition feature, latest privacy concern for doorbell maker

Amazon was sued on Monday by a ​Virginia resident over what he said were privacy violations ​after the company's Ring doorbell cameras ‌at friends and ​family members' homes collected and stored images of his face using facial recognition software. The plaintiff, Charles Sigwalt, who is seeking class-action status, sued Amazon in federal court ‌in Seattle alleging a feature known as "Familiar Faces" retains images of passersby without their consent. He is seeking at least $5 million in damages for the class.

Familiar Faces, which is optional, uses artificial intelligence to identify and remember people so that when they return ‌to a home or a business, notifications can include specific names. Those affected "did not consent to have their privacy ‌rights violated at the entrance way," according to the suit. "Millions of other Americans passed by a Ring security camera and unknowingly had their facial recognition information collected."

Amazon declined to comment. The suit, which seeks unspecified damages for those impacted, is just the latest in a string of controversies around Amazon's Ring, ⁠the ​unit that makes the eponymous ⁠smart doorbells and security systems. Ring, which Amazon bought in 2018 for $1 billion, in February faced a backlash over a service that it advertised during ⁠the Super Bowl that it said helps people find lost dogs by activating its neighborhood network of cameras. Users and privacy advocates were ​concerned the cameras could be deployed to surveil whole neighborhoods or areas. Following the criticism, Ring in February ended ⁠an unrelated partnership with Flock Safety, which deploys license plate readers and cameras for law enforcement use. In 2023, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission reached a $5.8 million ⁠settlement ​with Ring over privacy allegations that it said included a former employee spying on female customers in their home bedrooms and bathrooms.

The FTC said Ring employees had unrestricted access to customers' sensitive video data, allowing them and contractors to ⁠view and download it. Amazon denied any wrongdoing as part of the settlement. U.S. Democratic Senator Ed Markey alleged in ⁠2022 that Ring violated people's privacy ⁠through its partnerships with law enforcement, allowing them access to some user footage without proper consent. In the suit filed on Monday, Sigwalt said Amazon's "conduct here represents a profound privacy failure ‌for millions of ‌people who are now being tracked by Amazon."

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