Amazon-owned Ring should pay Americans for scanning their faces, lawsuit says
Amazon-owned Ring should pay Americans for scanning their faces, lawsuit says
诉讼称：亚马逊旗下的 Ring 应就扫描人脸行为向美国民众支付赔偿
A lawsuit against Amazon is seeking financial damages for millions of Americans whose faces may have been recorded by Ring cameras since the Familiar Faces feature was rolled out late last year. 针对亚马逊的一项诉讼正在寻求经济赔偿，涉及数百万名美国人。自去年年底“熟悉面孔”（Familiar Faces）功能推出以来，这些人的面部可能已被 Ring 摄像头记录。
Plaintiff Charles Sigwalt yesterday filed a class action suit that aims to represent all people in the US “who had their facial recognition data collected, retained, and otherwise used by the Familiar Faces feature created and implemented by Defendant.” 原告查尔斯·西格瓦尔特（Charles Sigwalt）昨日提起集体诉讼，旨在代表所有“其面部识别数据被被告创建并实施的‘熟悉面孔’功能收集、保留及以其他方式使用”的美国民众。
The lawsuit will seek “far” more than $5 million, but the $5 million figure was given in the complaint because US district courts have jurisdiction for civil actions seeking at least that amount. 该诉讼寻求的赔偿金额将“远”超 500 万美元，但在诉状中列出 500 万美元这一数字，是因为美国地方法院对寻求至少该金额的民事诉讼拥有管辖权。
“Here, there are millions of Americans who have walked by Ring cameras which have activated the Familiar Faces feature… the damages in this action far exceed $5,000,000.00 when calculating the statutory damages that may be owed to each Class member in addition to the actual damages caused by the aggregate loss of value of biometric information,” the lawsuit said. 诉讼称：“在这里，有数百万美国人走过开启了‘熟悉面孔’功能的 Ring 摄像头……当计算每位集体成员可能获得的法定赔偿，以及生物识别信息价值整体损失所导致的实际损害时，本案的赔偿金额将远超 5,000,000 美元。”
Ring’s Familiar Faces feature is designed to identify people who appear at one’s door and provide alerts to the owner of the camera. Amazon says Familiar Faces is not enabled by default but that owners of Ring cameras can turn it on. Ring camera users can create a “personal directory of up to 50 familiar faces” so they can be alerted when one comes to the door. Ring 的“熟悉面孔”功能旨在识别出现在门口的人，并向摄像头所有者发送提醒。亚马逊表示，“熟悉面孔”功能并非默认开启，但 Ring 摄像头的所有者可以手动启用。Ring 用户可以创建一个“最多包含 50 张熟悉面孔的个人目录”，以便在这些人出现在门口时收到提醒。
Sigwalt lives in Virginia and filed the suit in US District Court for the Western District of Washington, where Amazon is headquartered. He proposes a nationwide class of all people in the US whose faces were scanned and a subclass for Virginia residents. 西格瓦尔特居住在弗吉尼亚州，他在亚马逊总部所在的华盛顿州西区联邦地方法院提起了诉讼。他提议建立一个涵盖全美所有被扫描面部者的全国性集体，并为弗吉尼亚州居民设立一个子集体。
“Familiar Faces uses facial recognition technology to scan the face of all guests and passersby before categorizing who they are using artificial intelligence,” the lawsuit said. “AI then collects a ‘face print’ 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.” 诉讼指出：“‘熟悉面孔’利用人脸识别技术扫描所有访客和路人的面部，然后使用人工智能对他们进行分类。随后，人工智能会收集该人的‘面部指纹’，并将其转化为独特的数字组合，使 Ring 能够在‘熟悉面孔’功能每次对其进行人脸识别时，重新确认该人的身份。”
“Violates basic notions of consumer privacy”
“违反了消费者隐私的基本观念”
The complaint notes that Familiar Faces isn’t available everywhere in the US because some areas have stricter privacy laws than others: Ring clearly has the ability to follow biometric privacy laws with respect to the Familiar Faces feature—but it deliberately chooses not to. 诉状指出，“熟悉面孔”功能并非在美国各地都可用，因为某些地区的隐私法律比其他地区更严格：Ring 显然有能力在“熟悉面孔”功能方面遵守生物识别隐私法律，但它却故意选择不这样做。
Specifically, Ring told The Washington Post that Familiar Faces will not be available in Texas, Illinois, or Portland, Oregon because each jurisdiction has strict laws banning this type of biometric facial recognition surveillance. However, the rest of the country, including Plaintiff and Class members do not get the same respect. 具体而言，Ring 曾告诉《华盛顿邮报》，该功能不会在德克萨斯州、伊利诺伊州或俄勒冈州波特兰市提供，因为这些司法管辖区都有严格的法律禁止此类生物识别面部监控。然而，美国其他地区（包括原告和集体成员）却没有得到同样的尊重。
The lawsuit argues that Amazon’s conduct is illegal even in parts of the US without specific laws banning this type of facial recognition. The lawsuit pointed to a Federal Trade Commission policy statement that businesses “engaging in surreptitious and unexpected collection or use of biometric information” may violate the FTC Act’s prohibition on deceptive and unfair trade practices. 诉讼认为，即使在美国没有明确法律禁止此类人脸识别的地区，亚马逊的行为也是违法的。诉讼援引了联邦贸易委员会（FTC）的一份政策声明，称企业“进行秘密且出人意料的生物识别信息收集或使用”可能违反了《联邦贸易委员会法》中关于禁止欺骗性和不公平贸易行为的规定。
“Ring’s collection, retention, and use of biometric information without adequate consent demonstrates that Ring violates Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act—which protects against deceptive and unfair trade practices,” the complaint said, adding that “Ring’s collection of facial recognition [data] violates basic notions of consumer privacy in the United States.” 诉状称：“Ring 在没有获得充分同意的情况下收集、保留和使用生物识别信息，表明其违反了《联邦贸易委员会法》第 5 条（该条款旨在防止欺骗性和不公平贸易行为）。”诉状还补充道，“Ring 对人脸识别（数据）的收集违反了美国消费者隐私的基本观念。”
Lawsuit seeks injunction and payouts
诉讼寻求禁令与赔偿
The lawsuit further alleges violations of Virginia state laws, such as one prohibiting the use of people’s pictures for purposes of trade without their consent. “Defendant knowingly violated this provision of the Virginia code by using personal data, photographs, and likenesses in the form of pictures and biometric information of Plaintiff and Class members without their written consent for the purposes of trade,” the lawsuit said. 诉讼进一步指控其违反了弗吉尼亚州法律，例如禁止在未经同意的情况下将他人照片用于商业目的的法律。诉讼称：“被告在未经原告及集体成员书面同意的情况下，出于商业目的使用其个人数据、照片以及以图片和生物识别信息形式呈现的肖像，明知故犯地违反了弗吉尼亚州法典的这一规定。”
Other allegations include intrusion upon seclusion, negligence, and unjust enrichment. The complaint says Amazon did not compensate class members for the use and retention of their biometric data despite “increased sales due to the Familiar Faces feature of Ring cameras.” It seeks an injunction to change Amazon’s behavior, financial payouts to compensate class members for privacy violations, and disgorgement of profits. 其他指控还包括侵犯隐私、过失和不当得利。诉状称，尽管“Ring 摄像头的‘熟悉面孔’功能带来了销售额增长”，但亚马逊并未就生物识别数据的使用和保留向集体成员提供补偿。诉讼寻求发布禁令以改变亚马逊的行为，要求其支付赔偿金以补偿集体成员的隐私受损，并追缴其非法所得。
Amazon declined to comment on the lawsuit when contacted by Ars today. 当 Ars 今日联系亚马逊时，对方拒绝就此诉讼发表评论。
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) wrote in November that Ring’s Familiar Faces will scan “many 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.” 电子前沿基金会（EFF）在 11 月撰文称，Ring 的“熟悉面孔”功能会扫描“许多未同意进行人脸扫描的人，包括亲朋好友、政治拉票人员、邮政工作人员、快递司机、卖饼干的孩子，甚至可能是路过的行人。”
The EFF said Amazon seems to be “try[ing] to unload some consent requirements onto individual camera owners themselves” with messages reminding customers to comply with applicable laws. “But Amazon—as a company itself collecting, processing, and storing this biometric data—could have its own consent obligations under numerous laws,” the EFF said, urging regulators to “investigate, protect people’s privacy, and test the strength of their laws.” EFF 表示，亚马逊似乎通过提醒客户遵守适用法律的信息，“试图将部分同意要求转嫁给摄像头所有者个人”。EFF 指出：“但亚马逊作为一家自行收集、处理和存储这些生物识别数据的公司，根据多项法律，其自身可能负有同意义务。”该组织敦促监管机构“进行调查，保护民众隐私，并测试其法律的效力。”
Senator urged Amazon to end Familiar Faces
参议员敦促亚马逊终止“熟悉面孔”功能
US Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) has urged Amazon to discontinue the Familiar Faces feature. Markey sent Amazon a letter in October 2025 asking how Familiar Faces works, and summarized Amazon’s responses in a February 2026 letter that repeated his call to end Familiar Faces. 美国参议员埃德·马基（Ed Markey，马萨诸塞州民主党人）已敦促亚马逊停止“熟悉面孔”功能。马基在 2025 年 10 月致信亚马逊询问该功能的工作原理，并在 2026 年 2 月的一封信中总结了亚马逊的回复，重申了他要求终止该功能的呼吁。
Markey said that Amazon revealed in its response to his first letter “that Ring’s privacy protections apply only to device owners who may ‘opt in’ to the Familiar Faces feature, while providing no comparable consent mechanism for individuals unknowingly subjected to facial recognition, leaving members of the public with no right to consent to a facial scan and no…” 马基表示，亚马逊在回复他的第一封信时透露，“Ring 的隐私保护仅适用于可能‘选择加入’该功能的设备所有者，而对于在不知情的情况下被进行人脸识别的个人，却未提供任何类似的同意机制，这使得公众成员既没有权利同意人脸扫描，也没有……”