Amazon, owned by Jeff Bezos, has agreed to a $5.8 million settlement with the US Federal Trade Commission after a former employee of its Ring doorbell camera unit was found spying on female customers for months in 2017 using cameras installed in bedrooms and bathrooms. According to the FTC’s complaint, the employee viewed footage of at least 81 female customers and Ring staff using Ring products.
“Undetected by Ring, the employee continued spying for months,” the FTC said, adding, “Ring’s disregard for privacy and security exposed consumers to spying and harassment.” Only until a colleague saw the wrongdoing was the incident exposed, and the employee was fired. According to the US authority, Amazon gave its Ring staff free access to customers’ sensitive video footage, allowing the issue to spiral out of control.
“As a result of this dangerously overbroad access and lax attitude toward privacy and security, employees and third-party contractors were able to view, download, and transfer customers’ sensitive video data.” It was also stated that hackers were able to obtain sensitive media. They were able to not only access video streams, but also take control of cameras in order to exploit youngsters, threaten families, and demand ransom if private photographs or videos were not leaked.
Amazon will contribute an additional $25 million
Aside from the $5.8 million settlement, Amazon agreed to pay $25 million after Alexa (virtual assistant technology) was found to be infringing children’s privacy rights. The FTC discovered that Alexa failed to delete recordings requested by parents and stored them for longer than necessary. “The unlawfully retained voice recordings provided Amazon with a valuable database for training the Alexa algorithm to understand children, benefiting its bottom line at the expense of children’s privacy,” the FTC said.