Ring Lawsuit Claims ‘Familiar Faces’ Feature Violates ‘Basic Notions’ of Consumer Privacy

A proposed class action lawsuit alleges that Amazon and Ring have violated the privacy rights of millions of Americans by deploying a facial recognition feature in Ring security cameras that scans the faces of guests and passersby and categorizes who they are via artificial intelligence without consent.

The 28-page lawsuit contends that Amazon and subsidiary Ring do not provide meaningful notice to individuals whose facial data may be unknowingly collected, scanned and stored through the “Familiar Faces” technology rolled out for Ring cameras in December 2025.

Although the Familiar Faces feature is ostensibly designed to provide users with “personalized alerts” when a Ring camera recognizes someone it has seen before, with the tech apparently able to learn to detect “friends, family, and frequent visitors over time,” the complaint claims that people visiting—or merely walking by—homes and businesses equipped with Ring cameras are neither informed that their biometric information is being captured, nor given an opportunity to opt out.

“Much to the consternation of privacy experts and members of Congress, Ring continues to deploy mass surveillance technology at each of these entrance ways without adequate consent,” the Ring lawsuit summarizes, emphasizing that Ring has a “contentious relationship with and tempestuous history regarding consumer privacy rights.”

Aside from the defendants’ alleged collection and storage of consumers’ facial scans without consent, the complaint also alleges that Amazon and Ring have failed to disclose what happens to consumers’ facial data once it enters their cloud storage systems.

Although Ring claims that scans of “unrecognized faces” are stored for only 30 days, and “recognized faces” for 180 days, the suit claims that this is untrue, given that a Ring user can unsubscribe from the service for an “unquantified” amount of time only to come back and “have facial recognition resumed using saved profiles.”

“[R]ather than act as an industry leader and respect digital privacy rights, Ring has consciously chosen the opposite,” the class action suit claims.

Consumers given no chance to consent to or opt out of AI facial scans, Ring lawsuit alleges

Ring’s Familiar Faces feature uses facial recognition technology to scan the face of a person captured by a Ring camera before categorizing who they are using AI, the lawsuit explains. Per the suit, the technology analyzes facial characteristics, including the distance between features, bone structure, and eyes, ears, mouth, chin, and other identifiers, to create a unique “faceprint” for each person, which the defendants’ AI collects and translates into “a unique patchwork of numbers” that the case says allows Ring to recognize the person when they reappear on camera.

Per the filing, this capability allows Ring users to label visitors and receive personalized notifications when familiar individuals are detected. The suit says that the Familiar Faces tool also keeps a library of “unfamiliar faces,” i.e., those that have not been labeled by the Ring user but have been identified by a Ring camera’s facial recognition tech.

“For example, instead of seeing ‘Person at Front Door,’ you’ll see ‘Chris at Front Door,’” the case describes, referencing Ring’s marketing. “Your camera learns how to recognize friends, family, and frequent visitors over time.”

However, the class action lawsuit stresses that individuals whose facial scans are unknowingly captured and stored by Ring never receive notice or an opportunity to opt in or out of having their facial data scanned and logged in Amazon’s database.

“To put it plainly,” the complaint reads, “Amazon’s system forces non-consenting bystanders into a biometric database without their knowledge or consent.”

The suit delineates criticism from consumer protection advocates, such as Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey, who have expressed concern over the specter of mass surveillance without consent by companies such as Ring. To that point, the case highlights that while Ring users have the choice to activate the Familiar Faces feature, passersby whose faces are scanned do not have an equitable choice and may not even know that the facial recognition tech is in operation.

Ring facial scans without notice violate privacy laws, class action suit says

According to the case, Ring’s collection, retention and use of consumers’ facial scans without adequate consent is a violation of Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act, a federal law that broadly prohibits unfair or deceptive business practices. The suit charges that although the collection, retention and use of biometric data such as facial scans does not on its face violate the FTC Act, it is, however, considered deceptive and unfair when Ring secretly and unexpectedly collects or uses consumers’ biometric data.

“In this instance, Ring fails to adequately disclose the collection of facial recognition data, which violates Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act,” the case says plainly.

At the state level, lawmakers nationwide have increasingly recognized that biometric identifiers carry unique risks and require stricter, more specialized privacy protections. For instance, Illinois and Texas have codified legislation protecting consumers and their biometric information under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act and Texas Business and Commerce Code. Similarly, the case says that Portland, Oregon, is another jurisdiction with laws banning biometric facial recognition surveillance.

In recognition of these laws, the suit says, Ring has elected not to offer the Familiar Faces feature in these areas, purporting that this demonstrates the company’s awareness of privacy concerns surrounding its technology.

“However, the rest of the country, including Plaintiff and Class members, do not get the same respect,” the complaint reads.

Who does the Ring class action lawsuit look to cover?

The Ring facial recognition class action lawsuit seeks to represent all individuals in the United States who had their facial recognition data collected, retained and otherwise used by the Familiar Faces feature during the applicable statute of limitations period.

How do I join the Ring camera lawsuit?

Typically, there is nothing a consumer needs to do to join or sign up for a class action lawsuit when it’s first filed. The time to take action is usually in the event of a class action settlement, at which point the people covered by the case, called class members, may receive notice of the settlement with instructions on how to submit a claim form for benefits.

If you believe your facial data was collected by Ring and Amazon through the Familiar Faces feature, or simply want to stay in the know on class action lawsuit and class action settlement news, sign up for ClassAction.org’s free weekly newsletter.

Check out ClassAction.org’s lawsuit list for the latest open class action lawsuits and investigations.