Amazon-owned Ring faces a proposed class-action lawsuit alleging its Familiar Faces feature scans the faces of guests and passersby and uses AI to identify them without consent. Plaintiff Charles Sigwalt filed the suit in federal court in Washington, seeking far more than $5M on behalf of millions of Americans whose facial-recognition data was collected since the feature rolled out late last year. The complaint argues the practice violates the FTC Act's ban on unfair and deceptive practices, plus Virginia state law, and notes that Ring disabled Familiar Faces in Texas, Illinois, and Portland, Oregon, where biometric laws are stricter, but not elsewhere. The suit seeks an injunction, payouts to class members, and disgorgement of profits. The case follows Senator Ed Markey's calls for Amazon to end the feature and a 2023 FTC settlement in which Ring paid $5.8M over privacy violations.
