Amazon's Ring is facing a lawsuit regarding its Familiar Faces facial-recognition function.

      Amazon faced a lawsuit on Monday concerning the facial-recognition feature recently added to its Ring doorbells, centering on a well-known imbalance: the purchaser of the camera consents to its use, while those who pass by do not.

      Charles Sigwalt, a resident of Virginia, initiated the proposed class action in federal court in Seattle, claiming that Ring's “Familiar Faces” function captures and retains images of individuals without their consent. He is seeking a minimum of $5 million in damages on behalf of the class, as reported by Reuters.

      Familiar Faces is an optional feature that utilizes AI to identify individuals the camera has previously seen, allowing notifications to specify who is at the door rather than simply indicating that someone is present. Ring introduced it late last year as part of a larger update of its cameras, enabling users to label recognized people while the system catalogs a certain number of faces over time.

      For homeowners who activate the feature, it provides convenience. However, the lawsuit contends that for delivery drivers, neighbors, or strangers crossing the lawn, it results in facial data being collected and stored without their consent and without any practical means to opt out of a camera they do not own.

      This concern is not new, and Amazon's actions imply that it was aware of the potential for legal issues. The company has indicated that Familiar Faces is not available in Illinois or Texas, the two U.S. states with the strictest laws regarding biometric privacy.

      Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act mandates written consent before a company collects someone’s facial geometry, permitting damages of $1,000 for each negligent violation and $5,000 for each intentional one, making it the most costly law in the country to violate.

      Excluding the feature from these two states appears, to critics, less like a precaution and more like a response to an unspoken query.

      The Sigwalt lawsuit adds to an existing series of controversies for Ring. The device has faced scrutiny for its facial-recognition initiatives for years, as well as its data-sharing practices with law enforcement and a 2023 settlement with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission regarding employee access to customers' video footage.

      Since Amazon acquired Ring for approximately $1 billion in 2018, it has generally positioned the cameras as tools for neighborhood safety. Conversely, the plaintiffs characterize them as a privately operated surveillance system that happens to monitor public streets.

      The next steps are procedural. The court must determine whether the case will move forward as a class action, and Amazon has yet to respond to the specific allegations.

      A previous biometric lawsuit against Ring withstood a motion to dismiss in 2022, providing a precedent for the new claim, though not a definitive outcome. For now, there is a filed complaint, a specified damages amount, and a feature that continues to scan faces while legal representatives debate the necessary consent involved.