Amazon: Employees spied on users with Ring security cameras

US authorities said Amazon employees had unfettered access to images from Ring security cameras sold by the company and spied on users while they were still in the bedroom or bathroom, for which the company paid just $5.8 million to settle the case.

In a second, separate case, Amazon agreed to pay $25 million in an out-of-court settlement for violating children’s privacy after it emerged that the company did not immediately delete recordings of its digital assistant Alexa when parents requested it.

Amazon, which bought security hardware company Ring in 2018, has denied breaking the law, though it has promised to change some of its practices.

“While we dispute the FTC’s allegations against both Alexa and Ring, and deny violation of the law, out-of-court settlements have put these cases behind us,” the e-commerce giant declared.

The Federal Trade Commission found that until 2019, when company policy changed, Amazon employees were able to view images from Ring cameras without being disturbed. “As a result of this broad access and permissive attitudes toward privacy and security, employees and subcontractors have been able to view, download, and transmit customers’ sensitive video data.”

In one 2017 incident, the Federal Trade Commission said, a Ring employee spied on at least 81 women in their homes for months.

The employee was eventually fired when a colleague caught him.

In another case in May 2018, an Amazon employee gave a customer’s ex-wife information about footage from her cameras without, of course, asking her consent.

In a third incident, an employee gave Ring cameras to acquaintances and then spied on them without their knowledge.

An out-of-court settlement with the FTC now requires Amazon to tell users whether it or its subcontractors can access the data.

In February 2019, the carousel department changed its policy so that most employees can only view user videos with their consent.

The total amount of the out-of-court settlements, $30.8 million, seems paltry compared to the $3.2 billion Amazon reported in the first quarter of 2023. However, FTC Commissioner Alvaro Bentoya argued to Reuters that the ruling sends a message to tech companies that their thirst for The data craving is no excuse for breaking the law.

In the case of the Alexa digital assistant, Amazon was found to deceive users by not deleting their recordings and location data when they requested it.

As the FTC announced, “Illegally stored recordings provided Amazon with a valuable dataset for training the Alexa algorithm to understand children’s speech, thereby enhancing its profitability at the expense of children’s privacy.”