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
[…]
the FTC is sending 117,044 PayPal payments to impacted consumers who had certain types of Ring devices — including indoor cameras — during the timeframes that the regulators allege unauthorized access took place.
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Earlier this year, the California-based company separately announced that it would stop allowing police departments to request doorbell camera footage from users, marking an end to a feature that had drawn criticism from privacy advocates.
Source: Ring customers get $5.6 million in refunds in privacy settlement | AP News
Considering the size of Ring and the size of the customer base, this is a very very light tap on the wrist for delivering poor security and something that spies on everything on the street.
Robin Edgar
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