A Virginia man is suing Amazon, claiming Ring cameras scanned and stored his face without permission.
Charles Sigwalt filed the proposed class action Monday in federal court in Seattle. He says Ring’s optional “Familiar Faces” feature collected his facial data as he passed cameras at friends’ and family homes. He wants class-action status and at least $5 million in damages.
Ring’s Familiar Faces uses AI to recognize people and attach names to notifications when someone returns to a home or business. The suit argues passersby never agreed to it. Millions, it claims, ‘unknowingly had their facial recognition information collected’ by walking past a doorbell.
Another Privacy Issue for Ring
This isn’t Ring’s first trip down this road. Amazon bought the company for $1 billion in 2018, and the controversies keep piling up.
Back in February, Ring caught heat for a Super Bowl ad promoting a feature that activates its neighborhood camera network to find lost dogs. The same AI-powered Search Party tool drew privacy concerns over whether it could surveil whole neighborhoods. Ring then dropped a partnership with Flock Safety, a firm that runs license plate readers for police.
The bigger one came in 2023, when the FTC reached a $5.8 million settlement over claims a former employee spied on female customers inside their bedrooms and bathrooms. It isn’t the only suit either, with Amazon also facing a separate case over spying on Fire TV users. Amazon denied wrongdoing.
Final Thoughts from Troy
Sigwalt’s complaint nails it when he calls this ‘a profound privacy failure for millions of people.’ An opt-in feature does nothing for the neighbor scanned walking up your driveway.
The real question is whether a $5 million payout means anything to a company this size. Amazon has been here before, paid up, and kept building.
Hide Your Digital Fingerprint
For more details on this story, refer to the report from The Hill.
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