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Ring received a fine for improperly protecting customer video recordings.
The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced compensation payments totaling $5.6 million to customers of Ring (Amazon). The payments were the result of allegations of privacy violations brought by the regulator against Amazon.
According to an FTC complaint filed in May 2023, Ring deceived its customers by not restricting employees and contractors 'access to users' videos, used customer videos to train algorithms without their consent, and failed to implement necessary security measures. The violations resulted in a serious breach of user privacy.
According to the FTC's filings, it found that the company's employees and contractors were free to view personal videos, and insufficient security measures allowed hackers to bruteforce or use stolen data to log into customer accounts. The problem affected 55,000 American users, whose cameras could not only play recordings, but also transmit voice messages, which was used to intimidate victims, even threatening their lives.
A particularly outrageous case was the behavior of one of the employees, who viewed thousands of videos belonging to at least 81 women. A colleague reported his actions to her boss, who at first did not see anything strange in this, until it became clear that the employee chose to watch videos exclusively with "beautiful girls".
As a result, Ring was forced to pay the FTC $5.6 million. Funds are now distributed to affected customers, each of whom will be paid about $50. However, the amount doesn't even cover the cost of a single Ring camera, which starts at $100.
The situation is quite controversial, since in January Amazon announced that it would stop providing police with access to recordings from users Ring video cameras. However, there are several nuances in the decision that the police can take advantage of.
The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced compensation payments totaling $5.6 million to customers of Ring (Amazon). The payments were the result of allegations of privacy violations brought by the regulator against Amazon.
According to an FTC complaint filed in May 2023, Ring deceived its customers by not restricting employees and contractors 'access to users' videos, used customer videos to train algorithms without their consent, and failed to implement necessary security measures. The violations resulted in a serious breach of user privacy.
According to the FTC's filings, it found that the company's employees and contractors were free to view personal videos, and insufficient security measures allowed hackers to bruteforce or use stolen data to log into customer accounts. The problem affected 55,000 American users, whose cameras could not only play recordings, but also transmit voice messages, which was used to intimidate victims, even threatening their lives.
A particularly outrageous case was the behavior of one of the employees, who viewed thousands of videos belonging to at least 81 women. A colleague reported his actions to her boss, who at first did not see anything strange in this, until it became clear that the employee chose to watch videos exclusively with "beautiful girls".
As a result, Ring was forced to pay the FTC $5.6 million. Funds are now distributed to affected customers, each of whom will be paid about $50. However, the amount doesn't even cover the cost of a single Ring camera, which starts at $100.
The situation is quite controversial, since in January Amazon announced that it would stop providing police with access to recordings from users Ring video cameras. However, there are several nuances in the decision that the police can take advantage of.