A former employee of Amazon Ring’s doorbell camera unit spied for months on female customers in 2017 with cameras placed in bedrooms and bathrooms, the Federal Trade Commission said in a court statement on Wednesday. $5.8 million settlement with the company over privacy violations.
Amazon also agreed to pay $25 million to settle allegations that it violated children’s privacy rights when it failed to delete Alexa recordings at parents’ request and kept them for longer than necessary, according to a court filing in Seattle federal court that outlined a separate settlement.
The FTC settlements are the agency’s latest effort to hold big tech companies accountable for policies that critics say put profits from data collection ahead of privacy.
The FTC is also considering Amazon.com’s $1.7 billion deal to buy iRobot Corp (IRBT.O), announced in August 2022 in Amazon’s latest batch of smart home devices, and has a separate antitrust investigation into Amazon.
Amazon, which bought Ring in April 2018, has vowed to make some changes to its practices.
“While we disagree with the FTC’s allegations regarding both Alexa and Ring, and deny breaking the law, these settlements put these matters behind us,” Amazon.com said in a statement.
The FTC said Ring gave employees unfettered access to customers’ sensitive video data: “As a result of this dangerous broad access and lax attitude toward privacy and security, employees and third-party contractors have been able to view, download, and transmit customers’ sensitive video data.”
In one case in 2017, a Ring employee watched videos created by at least 81 female customers and Ring employees using Ring products. “Without being found out, the employee continued to spy for months,” the FTC said.
The FTC complaint said a colleague noticed the misconduct and the employee was eventually terminated.
The complaint states that in May 2018, an employee provided information about a client’s recordings to her ex-husband without his consent. In another case, an employee was found to have given Ring devices to people and then watched videos of them without their knowledge, the FTC said.
As part of the FTC’s agreement with Ring, which expires after 20 years, Ring is required to disclose to customers how much the company and its contractors have access to their data.
In February 2019, Ring changed its policies so that most Ring employees or contractors can access a customer’s video only with that person’s consent.
Federal Trade Commission Commissioner Alvaro Bedoya told Reuters that settlements should send a message to tech companies that their need to collect data is not an excuse to break the law. “This is a very clear signal to them,” he said.
The fines, which total $30.8 million, are a fraction of Amazon’s $3.2 billion in profits in the first quarter.
In its complaint against Amazon.com filed in Washington state, the FTC said it violated rules protecting children’s privacy and rules against deceiving consumers using Alexa. For example, the FTC complaint says Amazon told users it would delete voice transcripts and location information upon request, but then failed to do so.
“The illegally retained audio 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.
(Cover) By Diane Bartz and David Shepherdson. Editing by Anna Driver and Debbie Babbington
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