Amazon Faces $31 Million Fine for Privacy Violations Involving Alexa and Ring

The FTC has fined Amazon $30.8 million for privacy violations involving its Alexa assistant and Ring security cameras. The fine includes $25 million for breaching children's privacy laws and $5.8 million in consumer refunds for allowing employees and contractors broad access to private videos recorded using Ring cameras. Amazon has been ordered to delete collected information, disclose data retention practices, and implement adequate security controls to protect Ring user accounts. Over 55,000 U.S. customers had their accounts compromised between January 2019 and March 2020 due to these lax policies.