\n
<\/p>\n
Ring cameras in your neighborhood might be invading your privacy every time you take the dog out for a walk. <\/p>\n
In the latest lawsuit against Amazon over privacy concerns, Virginia resident Charles Sigwalt alleges<\/a> that the company illegally violates the privacy of millions of Americans who unknowingly have their likeness captured and stored by Ring cameras without their consent. The class action complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, where Amazon\u2019s Seattle headquarters is located.<\/p>\n The lawsuit<\/a> specifically concerns a new feature for Ring devices, introduced in December, known as Familiar Faces. That feature was designed to scan and identify faces that the camera sees regularly so the device owner can receive personalized alerts if someone familiar shows up at the door. The feature can store up to 50 faces and \u201clearns to recognize friends, family, and frequent visitors over time,\u201d according to Amazon\u2019s marketing materials<\/a>.<\/p>\n The lawsuit, which seeks well over $5 million in damages, states that the people surveilled by Ring doorbell cameras did not consent to allow their facial recognition data to be collected and stored. <\/p>\n \u201cFamiliar Faces uses facial recognition technology to scan the face of all guests and passersby before categorizing who they are using artificial intelligence,\u201d the lawsuit explains. \u201cAI then collects a \u2018face print\u2019 of the respective person and translates it into a unique patchwork of numbers that allows Ring to re-identify who that person is each time Familiar Faces deploys facial recognition on them.\u201d<\/p>\n The class action suit will hinge on whether Amazon\u2019s Ring facial recognition practices break the law in states that don\u2019t explicitly restrict facial recognition technology. Amazon notably declined to deploy the Familiar Faces feature in places with robust anti-surveillance laws protecting residents against facial recognition tech, including the state of Illinois and Portland, Oregon<\/a>.<\/p>\n To establish that the Ring feature runs afoul of national law, the lawsuit cites the FTC\u2019s existing policy on biometric surveillance<\/a>, which describes the \u201cserious risk of harm\u201d that facial recognition collection can pose. \u201cSuch harms are not reasonably avoidable by consumers if the collection and use of such information is not clearly and conspicuously disclosed. \u2026 For instance, if businesses automatically and surreptitiously collect consumers\u2019 biometric information as they enter or move through a store, the consumers have no ability to avoid the collection or use of that information,\u201d the FTC policy states.<\/p>\n It\u2019s no surprise that Ring\u2019s Familiar Faces feature is a privacy nightmare. When the feature was first announced last year, it faced a backlash from privacy-minded lawmakers and organizations such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), which warned that Amazon was poised to violate state laws protecting biometric data. While Amazon positions the new Ring feature as a way to quickly spot visiting friends or family, the deeper issue is how many other people will be swept up in the surveillance process.<\/p>\n In a piece outlining legal concerns around the feature, the EFF<\/a> observed that by design, Ring cameras using the feature will collect facial recognition data on \u201cmany people who have not consented to a face scan, including friends and family, political canvassers, postal workers, delivery drivers, children selling cookies, or maybe even some people passing on the sidewalk.\u201d<\/p>\n Massachusetts Sen. Edward Markey called on Amazon to abandon the Familiar Faces feature after it was announced. \u201c<\/strong>This announcement represents a dramatic expansion of surveillance technology, creating vast new privacy and civil liberties risks,\u201d Markey said in a letter to Amazon\u2019s CEO<\/a> in late October. \u201cAmericans should not have to fear being tracked and recorded while visiting a friend\u2019s home or walking past a neighbor\u2019s house.\u201d Markey sits on the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, which exercises oversight\u2014and regulatory power\u2014over data privacy issues.<\/p>\n \u201cDefendant\u2019s conduct here represents a profound privacy failure for millions of people who are now being tracked by Amazon\u2014which has a contentious relationship with and tempestuous history regarding consumer privacy rights,\u201d the lawsuit states.<\/p>\nSurveillance at your door<\/h2>\n