Amazon has agreed to pay $30 million to settle allegations that it violated the privacy of users of its Ring video doorbell and Alexa virtual assistant services. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) accused Amazon of unlawfully surveilling customers and failing to prevent hackers from gaining control of users’ cameras.
Amazon ignored requests to delete Ring camera and Alexa recordings
The FTC alleged that Ring violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) by collecting voice recordings and geolocation information from children without parental consent. The agency also said that Amazon failed to delete this data when parents requested it.
Amazon claims that its Alexa service and Echo devices are “designed to protect your privacy” and that parents and other users can delete geolocation data and voice recordings. Yet, repeated requests from customers were ignored, according to the FTC.
Amazon claimed it retained children’s voice recordings in order to help it respond to voice commands, allow parents to review them, and to improve Alexa’s speech recognition and processing capabilities.
As part of the settlement, Amazon will pay $5.8 million in refunds to consumers and will be barred from profiting from unlawfully obtained consumer videos. The company will also be required to delete all voice recordings and geolocation information collected from children under the age of 13.
FTC demands new Amazon privacy measures in settlement agreement
In addition, Amazon will be required to implement new privacy measures for its Ring and Alexa services. These measures include:
- Obtaining consent from users before collecting their personal data.
- Providing users with more control over how their data is collected and used.
- Taking steps to protect user data from unauthorized access.
The settlement is a significant victory for the FTC and a warning to other tech companies that collect user data. It sends a message that the agency will not hesitate to take action against companies that violate the privacy of their users.
