Amazon: Ring employees viewed home camera users

Amazon-owned home security camera company Ring was accused of violating the privacy of its users by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on Wednesday (31). The crime consisted of: “Enable thousands of employees and contractors to view video recordings of clients’ private areas”.

Acquired by Amazon in February 2018, Ring is a California-based company that sells a range of home security products such as video doorbells, cameras and alarm systems. The company promotes its products by highlighting the “See Home Far From Home” feature with images taken from indoor cameras.

Under a court order filed by the consumer protection agency in the District of Columbia Court in Washington, DC, Ring will have to delete all information, such as data, models, and algorithms illegally produced by the videos it examines. Not to mention the adoption of stricter security controls, to restrict employees’ access to these private videos.

What does Ring say about the FTC’s claims?

According to FTC information, as of September 2017, All of Ring’s employees and a Ukraine-based contractor had unlimited access to customer videos. The situation continued after Amazon bought the company. Additionally, the agency says that Ring has not adopted basic security protections that expose content to potential hacker attacks.

In a blog post, Ring says it has reached a settlement with the FTCand ensures that the government agency’s complaints are “based on issues that Ring promptly addressed on his own, long before the FTC investigation began.”

While Ring disagrees with the FTC’s allegations and denies it violated any law, it understands that the settlement definitively resolves this issue.