In one instance in 2017, an employee of Ring viewed videos made by at least 81 female customers and Ring employees using Ring products. The FTC said Ring gave employees unrestricted access to customers' sensitive video data: '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.' 'While we disagree with the FTC's claims regarding both Alexa and Ring, and deny violating the law, these settlements put these matters behind us,' said in a statement. The FTC is also probing 's $1.7 billion deal to buy iRobot Corp (IRBT.O), which was announced in August 2022 in Amazon's latest push into smart home devices, and has a separate antitrust probe underway into Amazon.Īmazon, which purchased Ring in April 2018, pledged to make some changes in its practices. The FTC settlements are the agency's latest effort to hold Big Tech accountable for policies critics say place profits from data collection ahead of privacy.

WASHINGTON, May 31 (Reuters) - A former employee of 's Ring 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 filing on Wednesday when it announced a $5.8 million settlement with the company over privacy violations.Īmazon also agreed to pay $25 million to settle allegations it violated children's privacy rights when it failed to delete Alexa recordings at the request of parents and kept them longer than necessary, according to a court filing in federal court in Seattle that outlined a separate settlement.

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