FTC sends $5.6 million in refunds to Ring customers as part of video privacy settlement

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

FTC sends $5.6 million in refunds to Ring customers as part of video privacy settlement

BY WYATTE GRANTHAM-PHILIPS
Updated 11:08 AM EDT, April 25, 2024

NEW YORK (AP) — The Federal Trade Commission is sending more than $5.6 million in refunds to consumers as part of a settlement with Amazon-owned Ring, which was charged with failing to protect private video footage from outside access.

In a 2023 complaint, the FTC accused the doorbell camera and home security provider of allowing its employees and contractors to access customers’ private videos. Ring allegedly used such footage to train algorithms without consent, among other purposes.

Ring was also charged with failing to implement key security protections, which enabled hackers to take control of customers’ accounts, cameras and videos. This led to “egregious violations of users’ privacy,” the FTC noted.

The resulting settlement required Ring to delete content that was found to be unlawfully obtained, establish stronger security protections and pay a hefty fine. The FTC says that it’s now using much of that money to refund eligible Ring customers.

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Read more: https://apnews.com/article/ring-doorbell-camera-settlement-ftc-payments-658a3bae14c4744cf449932099dc4404

[AnnaLee]

1. I probably escaped unharmed.

In the early days of Ring. Before AMZ took ownership.

I purchased a Ring doorbell with camera. My name brand expensive router would not connect to it no matter what I tried. I talked to the nice man at Ring and he needed for me to setup an account on my router so he could look at the problem. I told him that I would send all Ring purchases back to them because no stranger gets access to the router in my home.