Amazon Ring sued over facial recognition privacy
A Virginia resident filed a class action lawsuit against Amazon alleging that Ring doorbell cameras collect facial recognition data without consent through the Familiar Faces feature. The plaintiff seeks at least $5 million in damages following a series of privacy controversies involving the security unit.
Amazon faces a $5 million class-action lawsuit in the United States over allegations that its Ring doorbell cameras illegally collect facial recognition data. The filing in a Seattle federal court on Monday afternoon claims the "Familiar Faces" feature stores images of passersby without consent. For investors, the litigation adds to a pattern of privacy-related regulatory and legal costs following Amazon's $1 billion acquisition of Ring in 2018.
### Privacy Failures and Facial Recognition The plaintiff, Charles Sigwalt, alleges that Ring’s artificial intelligence identifies and remembers individuals to provide specific name notifications when they return to a property. The lawsuit asserts that millions of Americans have had their facial information collected unknowingly while passing security cameras. Sigwalt stated the conduct represents a profound privacy failure for people now being tracked by the company.
