Amazon's smart doorbell brand Ring is facing a new lawsuit. The class-action lawsuit filed in Seattle by Charles Sigwalt of Virginia, USA, alleges that the company's "Familiar Faces" feature collected people's facial information without their consent.
Launched at the end of last year, the feature uses artificial intelligence to recognize people who regularly visit the home and send more detailed notifications to users. But privacy advocates point out that people who pass by Ring's cameras have not consented to having their faces scanned.
The lawsuit alleges that facial recognition data was collected without the knowledge of millions of Americans. Amazon announced that when the feature was launched, face data was encrypted, not shared, and unrecognized faces were automatically deleted after 30 days.
Ring has been embroiled in privacy scandals before. In 2023, Amazon reached a $5.8 million settlement with the US Federal Trade Commission over allegations of unauthorized access to personal videos of Ring users. The new lawsuit is expected to reignite the debate over the company's use of facial recognition technologies.
