Amazon’s Ring Doorbell Faces Class Action Over AI Facial Recognition

Amazon is staring down a class action lawsuit over its Ring doorbell cameras, with the central complaint centering on privacy. Filed Monday in Seattle by Virginia resident Charles Sigwalt, the suit alleges that Ring’s Familiar Faces feature quietly collects facial data from passersby without their knowledge or consent. The feature, which launched last December after a beta announcement in September, uses AI to help homeowners identify regular visitors—like family members, mail carriers, or neighbors—so the app can send personalized alerts (“Dad is at the door”) instead of generic ones. While users must opt in, the lawsuit argues that the millions of people who simply walk past these cameras never agreed to having their facial data captured and stored. This isn’t Ring’s first brush with controversy. In 2023, Amazon paid a $5.8 million FTC fine after employees and contractors were found to have accessed private customer videos without authorization. Ring has also faced scrutiny over its close ties with law enforcement, including a now-defunct program that allowed police to request footage without a warrant. More recently, Ring canceled a planned partnership with Flock Safety—a company that shares surveillance data with ICE—after backlash over its AI-powered Search Party feature for lost pets. Founder Jamie Siminoff told TechCrunch the deal would have created too much of a “workload.” Amazon declined to comment on the new lawsuit. At the time of Familiar Faces’ release, the company said face data is encrypted and never shared, and that unidentified faces are deleted after 30 days. But for privacy advocates and the plaintiffs, that assurance doesn’t address the core issue: consent.