- Amazon’s Ring doorbell unit will pay the Federal Trade Commission $5.8 million in a privacy breach settlement.
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According to a filing Wednesday, Amazon’s Ring Doorbell division will pay the Federal Trade Commission $5.8 million in a privacy breach settlement.
The agency filed a lawsuit in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, alleging that Ring violated a portion of the FTC statute that prohibits unfair or deceptive business practices.
While Ring has claimed that its doorbell security camera products help keep customers safer, the FTC claimed Ring instead misappropriated customer information by allowing third parties access to customer videos, even when not necessary to perform their duties .
The FTC claimed that prior to July 2017, Ring employees and those working for a third party in Ukraine could have accessed and downloaded any customer’s videos without technical or procedural restrictions, the FTC claimed.
Amazon acquired Ring for reportedly $1 billion in 2018, and the company now operates as an Amazon subsidiary. The deal has helped Amazon expand its presence in the smart home and home security categories. But Ring has also been the subject of intense scrutiny for Amazon over privacy concerns and its controversial partnerships with law enforcement agencies.
Ring’s security protocols have been criticized before. In 2020, Ring announced it had fired four employees for viewing customer video feeds after reports from The Intercept and The Information found Ring employees in Ukraine had unrestricted access to video from Ring cameras on the received all over the world.
The company strengthened its security measures after a series of incidents in which hackers gained access to several users’ cameras. In one case, hackers were able to observe and communicate with an 8-year-old girl. Ring blamed users for reusing their passwords.
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