Amazon to Pay USD 30 Million for Alexa, Ring Privacy Violations

Amazon.com and a subsidiary reached separate multi-million greenback settlements with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday associated to privateness violations of kids utilizing its voice assistant Alexa and householders utilizing its Ring doorbell digicam.

Amazon agreed to pay $25 million to settle allegations it violated kids’s privateness rights when it didn’t delete Alexa recordings on the request of oldsters and saved them longer than vital, based on a court docket submitting in federal court docket in Seattle.

“While we disagree with the FTC’s claims relating to each Alexa and Ring, and deny violating the regulation, these settlements put these issues behind us,” Amazon.com said in a statement.

It also pledged to make some changes to its practices.

Ring will pay $5.8 million for mishandling customers’ videos, according to a separate filing in federal court in the District of Columbia.

In its complaint against Amazon.com filed in Washington state, the FTC said that it violated rules protecting children’s privacy and rules against deceiving consumers who used Alexa. For example, the FTC complaint says that Amazon told users it would delete voice transcripts and location information upon request, but then failed to do so.

The FTC also said Ring gave employees unrestricted access to customers’ sensitive video data said “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 for their own purposes.”

As a part of the FTC settlement with Ring, which spans 20 years, Ring is required to open up to clients how a lot entry to their knowledge the corporate and its contractors have.

In February 2019, Ring modified its insurance policies so that the majority Ring workers or contractors might solely entry a buyer’s non-public video with that individual’s consent.

(This story has not been edited by News18 workers and is printed from a syndicated news company feed – Reuters)