Amazon Settles for $30M Over Ring and Alexa Privacy Violations

Amazon will pay over $30 million to settle alleged privacy violations involving its voice assistant Alexa and its doorbell camera Ring. The Federal Trade Commission accused Amazon of deceiving users of the voice assistance service and retaining children's recordings indefinitely unless a parent requested the information be deleted. In the Ring case, the agency accuses Amazon's home security camera subsidiary of allowing its employees and contractors to access the private videos of consumers and providing lax security practices that enabled hackers to take control of some accounts. Amazon said it disagreed with the agency's claims but said the settlements "put these matters behind us."