Ring has been collecting visitor’s facial biometrics without consent, class action lawsuit alleges | Daily Reports Online
- Amazon-owned Ring faces a potential class-action lawsuit, $5m+ in damages sought
- Familiar Faces doesn’t operate in some states due to privacy protections
- “Profound privacy failure” affects millions of Americans
Doorbell giant Ring, an Amazon company, now faces a proposed class-action lawsuit in the US over its ‘Familiar Faces’ feature, which uses AI to identify and label people to arrive 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 friends’ and relatives’ homes.
According to the complaint, the technology collects and stores facial biometrics from anyone who appears within the camera’s field of view – regardless of whether they’re visiting the house or not.
Ring 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 faceprints from anybody who comes with reach of a supported camera.
The complaint is seeking at least $5 million in damages, but this figure could rise if a larger class of affected individuals gets 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.
This isn’t the first time that the Amazon-owned company has faced the heat – in 2023 it paid a $5.8 million settlement to the FTC over allegations relating to employees’ 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 about neighborhood surveillance.
In the complaint, the plaintiff concludes that Ring has created a “profound privacy failure for millions of people who are now being tracked by Amazon.”
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