Amazon Ring Pays FTC $5.8 Million Over Privacy Violations

Amazon’s Ring doorbell unit will pay the Federal Trade Commission $5.8 million in a settlement over privacy violations, according to a document Wednesday.

an agency He sued in US District Court for the District of Columbia alleging that Ring violated a portion of the FTC statute prohibiting unfair or deceptive business practices.

While Ring claimed its products help keep customers safer through doorbell security cameras, the FTC alleged that Ring instead included customer information by giving outside contractors access to customer videos, even when It is not necessary to perform their functions.

The FTC alleged that Ring employees and those who worked for a third-party contractor in Ukraine could access and download videos of each customer, without any technical or procedural restrictions on the practice prior to July 2017.

Amazon acquired Ring for $1 billion in 2018 and the company now operates as a subsidiary of Amazon. The deal helped Amazon increase its presence in the home security and smart home categories. But Ring has also been the source of significant scrutiny at Amazon over privacy concerns and its controversial partnerships with police departments.

Ring’s security protocols have been criticized in the past. In 2020, Ring said it fired four employees for peeping into customers’ video feeds after reports from The objection And the information It found that Ring employees in Ukraine were given unfettered access to video from Ring cameras around the world.

The company has beefed up its security measures after a series of incidents where hackers gained access to a number of users’ cameras. In one case, hackers They were able to watch and communicate with 8 year old girl. Ring blamed the problem on users reusing their passwords.

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