Amazon gets slap on the wrist over privacy violations with Ring cameras
Amazon has negotiated a financially inconsequential settlement with the United States Federal Trade Commission over the company's behavior with Ring doorbell camera data.

Ring video doorbell
Ring has successfully reached a settlement with the FTC that will see the unit paying a paltry $5.8 million over privacy concerns. The filing reveals the FTC discovered Ring gave employees "unrestricted access" to sensitive customer video data, and "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."
The filing alleges Ring, along with its third-party contractors, could download and otherwise access all of its customers' videos, with no hurdles at any point, up until July 2017.
In addition to the settlement, which is said to be good for 20 years, Ring must also take action regarding privacy transparency. Moving forward, Ring must divulge to its customers just how much of their data is available to Ring itself, as well as its contractors.
In 2019, Amazon's camera doorbell unit changed its access policies for its employees and contractors, making it so they could only access private customer data with the customer's consent.
Ring was acquired by Amazon for $1 billion in 2018, and was meant to be a big push for Amazon in the smart home market. In 2020, the company paused data sharing in an effort to rework its privacy controls.
The filing was made in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
Read on AppleInsider

Ring video doorbell
Ring has successfully reached a settlement with the FTC that will see the unit paying a paltry $5.8 million over privacy concerns. The filing reveals the FTC discovered Ring gave employees "unrestricted access" to sensitive customer video data, and "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."
The filing alleges Ring, along with its third-party contractors, could download and otherwise access all of its customers' videos, with no hurdles at any point, up until July 2017.
In addition to the settlement, which is said to be good for 20 years, Ring must also take action regarding privacy transparency. Moving forward, Ring must divulge to its customers just how much of their data is available to Ring itself, as well as its contractors.
In 2019, Amazon's camera doorbell unit changed its access policies for its employees and contractors, making it so they could only access private customer data with the customer's consent.
Ring was acquired by Amazon for $1 billion in 2018, and was meant to be a big push for Amazon in the smart home market. In 2020, the company paused data sharing in an effort to rework its privacy controls.
The filing was made in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
Read on AppleInsider
Comments
But they do have the side-effect of raising consumer awareness and altering purchasing decision. This just reinforces my personal decision to avoid Ring products.
From the article ......
>The filing alleges Ring, along with its third-party contractors, could download and otherwise access all of its customers' videos, with no hurdles at any point, up until July 2017.
............
In 2019, Amazon's camera doorbell unit changed its access policies for its employees and contractors, making it so they could only access private customer data with the customer's consent.
Ring was acquired by Amazon for $1 billion in 2018, and was meant to be a big push for Amazon in the smart home market. In 2020, the company paused data sharing in an effort to rework its privacy controls.<
Once again AI headline is some what misleading.
$30M per hour X 24 hours per day X 365 days per year ...... comes to a WHOPPING ....... $263B a year in profit.
Apple annual profit per year is about $100B. No way is Amazon making more than 2.5X profit per year, than the biggest tech company in the World.
The $263B number you are using is closer to Amazon GROSS PROFIT. Having a gross profit does not guarantee having any net profit.
https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/AMZN/amazon/gross-profit
If you want to be accurate and use Amazon actual annual net profit, then it looks more like this.
https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/AMZN/amazon/net-income
In 2021, the latest full year Amazon made a profit, and a record year for that matter.
$33.5B in annual profit ... divided by ..... 365 days in a year .... divide by..... 24 hours in a day .... comes to $3.8M a hour. So it would take Amazon about 8 hours of profit to pay for a $31M fine. And that was using the profit they made in 2021. In 2022, Amazon didn't make a profit, but still had over $200B in gross profit.