Amazon to pay almost $31 million to settle Alexa, Ring violations

By Ovunc Kutlu

ISTANBUL (AA) - Amazon will pay almost $31 million to settle privacy violations regarding its virtual assistant technology Alexa and home security division Ring.

The US-based e-commerce and tech firm was charged by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Justice Department with "violating children’s privacy law by keeping kids’ Alexa voice recordings forever and undermining parents’ deletion requests," FTC said Wednesday in a statement.

"Amazon’s history of misleading parents, keeping children’s recordings indefinitely, and flouting parents’ deletion requests violated COPPA and sacrificed privacy for profits," said Samuel Levine, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection.

COPPA, known as Children's Online Privacy Protection Rule, imposes certain requirements on operators of websites or online services directed to children under 13 years of age, according to the FTC.

For violating COPPA, Amazon will pay $25 million and delete children’s data, including their geolocation, and other voice recordings.

Amazon is also required to pay an additional $5.8 million in consumer refunds for violations regarding its home security camera company Ring.

FTC said in a separate statement that Ring employees illegally surveilled customers and failed to stop hackers from taking control of users' cameras.

"Ring’s disregard for privacy and security exposed consumers to spying and harassment," said Levine.

The agency asked Ring to be prohibited from profiting from unlawfully accessing consumers' videos and demanded the company delete data products such as models and algorithms derived from videos it unlawfully reviewed.

Amazon acquired Ring for $1 billion in 2018 as the firm operates as a subsidiary of Amazon.

About the settlements, Amazon said Wednesday on its website it has taken steps to protect customer privacy and added it has "a longstanding commitment to preserve the trust of our customers and their families."

"Customers have the ability to view, hear, and delete voice recordings and transcripts at any time in the Alexa app or the Alexa Privacy page," it said in a statement. "Customers can also delete voice recordings by voice either one by one, by date range, or by device."

Ring, in a blog post, said it disagrees with the FTC’s allegations and denies violating the law, adding the company provides customers with control over their stored videos and restricts employee access to those videos.