Amazon charged with $30 million over violating privacy

On Wednesday, the Federal Trade Commission came to a conclusion to charge Amazon’s Alexa and Ring, on two separate privacy violation cases.

Amazon comes under fire once again, due to privacy issues. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has come to a vote and decided on charging Amazon with more than $30 million, to settle the alleged issue dealing with their popular voice assistance Alexa and booming doorbell camera Ring’s privacy policies.

The issue came into prominent light after a former employee of the company was caught spying on a woman through the Amazon Ring doorbell camera. In 2017, for months, the former employee was looking through camera located in the bedrooms and bathrooms. The FTC, on Wednesday, during the court filing stated that the company was to pay $5.8 million in settlement.

In the case of Amazon’s Alexa, the company has been accused of deceiving users for a multiple years. The voice assistant was accused of storing data and recordings of children, indefinitely. The data could be deleted once parents decide to; however, Amazon would still keep transcripts of said recordings. Due to the violation of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, FTC has decided on a $25 million fine, for sacrificing customer’s privacy in order to make a profit.

While Amazon has denied both of FTC’s claims, disagreeing with the accusations of violating any kinds of privacy policies, they are willing to make the settlements in order to move past the issue.