The settlement focuses on a lawsuit filed Wednesday by the FTC accusing Ring of unlawfully defrauding its customers about the privacy of their data and the videos collected by its products. According to the agency complaintRing failed to allow employees and contractors access to customer videos and used them to train algorithms without user consent.
“Ring’s disregard for privacy and security exposed consumers to espionage and harassment,” FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection director Samuel Levine said in a statement Wednesday. “The FTC’s order makes it clear that it doesn’t pay to put profit before privacy.”
The FTC’s complaint alleges that Ring failed to implement meaningful guardrails to protect employees and outside contractors from accessing customer videos. In one case, the FTC alleges that a Ring employee viewed “thousands of video recordings” that came from female users “surveilling intimate areas in their homes,” such as their bedrooms and bathrooms. This offensive behavior continued until it was discovered by another employee, the FTC said.
Under the order proposed by the FTCRing should remove all data and algorithms from illegally viewed videos. Ring must also establish a new privacy and security program that prohibits employees from viewing customer videos except under specific law enforcement circumstances. The injunction would also prohibit the company from using certain geolocation and voice information to help improve or create products.
Before Ring can formally settle the case, a federal court must approve the proposed settlement.
The complaint also accuses Ring of illegally preventing multiple cyberattacks, such as two credential stuffing attacks in 2017 and 2018. After gaining access to approximately 55,000 customer accounts, the FTC alleges that hackers were able to “harass, threaten and to offend”.
“For example, hackers taunted several children with racial slurs, sexually explicit individuals, and threatened a family with physical harm if they did not pay a ransom,” the FTC press release said on Wednesday.
In a statement to The edge WednesdayRing spokesperson Emma Daniels said the company did not deny the FTC’s claims, but that the company “promptedly addressed these issues itself years ago, long before the FTC began its investigation.”
“While we disagree with the FTC’s allegations and deny that we violated the law, this settlement resolves this matter so that we can focus on innovation on behalf of our customers,” said Daniels.
