Amazon's (NASDAQ: AMZN) Ring subsidiary is under fire for privacy concerns after the company admitted in a letter that four employees were fired for accessing user videos, and a hacking incident that involved a hacker gaining access to a camera feed of a little girl's room.
Ring, Amazon's subsidiary that produces home security systems, including its flagship "doorbell camera," has been under increasing scrutiny as it reels from a growing concern over user privacy. Most recently, the company admitted to Congress that it had previously fired four employees after they had accessed user videos without proper permission. "Each of these individuals involved in these incidents was authorized to view video data," said Amazon, "the attempted access to that data exceeded what was necessary for their job functions." Of note is that not all Ring employees with video access are located in the United States, though Amazon refused to clarify how many foreign employees had access to user videos.
More recently, Ring has found itself the subject of a lawsuit by two couples whose Ring cameras were remotely hacked. In December, a Ring camera in the bedroom of a young girl was remotely hacked by an unknown male who used the speaker function to play music and taunt the little girl verbally. The other couple had their Ring system hacked by someone who demanded a ransom of Bitcoin. "Instead of helping families protect their homes, Ring security devices have had the opposite effect by permitting hackers to exploit security vulnerabilities in the Ring system to spy and harass Ring customers inside their homes," the lawsuit stated.
Previous concerns over Ring's privacy sparked an investigation by congress. Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., has been the most active in the ongoing investigation into Ring. After an investigation into Ring in November, Markey claimed that Ring had left an "open door for privacy and civil liberty violations." Markey has raised concerns that Amazon and Ring are not doing nearly enough to address privacy concerns.