Amazon will pay $30 million for Alexa and Ring privacy violations

WASHINGTON, May 31 (Reuters) – Amazon.com (AMZN.O) and one of its affiliates reached separate multimillion-dollar settlements with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday related to privacy violations of children using its Alexa voice assistant and homeowners using its Ring. doorbell camera.

Amazon has agreed to pay $25 million to settle allegations that it violated children’s privacy rights when it failed to delete Alexa recordings at parents’ request and kept them longer than necessary, according to a court filing in Seattle federal court.

“While we disagree with the FTC’s allegations regarding both Alexa and Ring, and deny breaking the law, these settlements put these matters 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 customer videos, according to a separate lawsuit in federal court in the District of Columbia.

In its complaint against Amazon.com filed in Washington state, the FTC said it violated rules protecting children’s privacy and rules against deceiving consumers using Alexa. For example, the FTC complaint says 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 “As a result of this dangerously broad access and lax attitude toward privacy and security, employees and third-party contractors have been able to view, download, and transfer customers’ sensitive video data for their own purposes.” .

As part of the FTC’s agreement with Ring, which spans 20 years, Ring is required to disclose to customers how much the company and its contractors have access to their data.

In February 2019, Ring changed its policies so that most Ring employees or contractors can access a customer’s video only with that person’s consent.

(Cover) By Diane Bartz and David Shepherdson. Editing by Anna Driver

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