The Amazon-owned ring must pay Americans to see their faces, the lawsuit says

Amazon declined to comment on the lawsuit when contacted by Ars today.

Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) wrote in November that the Famous Ring will photograph “many people who have not consented to having their faces photographed, including friends and family, political lobbyists, postal workers, truck drivers, children selling cookies, or perhaps other passers-by.” The EFF said Amazon appears to be “attempting to impose additional requirements on camera owners” with messages reminding customers to comply with applicable laws.

“But Amazon – as a company that collects, processes, and stores biometric information – can have their consent in many laws,” said the EFF, urging authorities to “investigate, protect people’s privacy, and test the effectiveness of their laws.”

The senator urged Amazon to cancel Famous Faces

Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) has urged Amazon to stop using Faces Faces. Markey sent Amazon a letter in October 2025 asking how Facebook Faces works, and summarizing Amazon’s answers in February 2026 letter which reiterated his call to end Familiar Faces.

Markey said Amazon disclosed in its first letter response “that Ring’s privacy protections only apply to device owners who choose to ‘opt in’ to Faces, while not granting similar permission to people who are being monitored without their knowledge, leaving people without the right to allow facial recognition and control over their data.

According to Markey’s follow-up letter, Amazon also revealed that “people who want to have their biometric data removed (should) ask for it to be removed from the owners of the ring, forcing people to ask for it to be removed from every building they visit,” and “the number of law enforcement agencies on its team. Neighborhood Public Safety Service has increased from 2,161 in 2022 to 2,723 today.

Amazon last year launched an AI-powered “Search Party” feature that it claims is useful for finding lost petswhich led to that back after the Super Bowl commercials. Amazon later concluded a contract with Flock Safety which would send Ring client videos to Flock, that is used by the police.

The call brought privacy threats before the appearance of Famous Faces and the Hunting Squad. In 2023, the FTC prosecuted accuses Ring of infringing on user privacy by “allowing thousands of employees and contractors to view videos on private customer sites.” Amazon has not admitted any wrongdoing but agreed to pay $5.8 million to refund customers, delete certain types of data, and improve privacy and security.