On Wednesday, local time, e-commerce giant Amazon was charged by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over its smart voice assistant Alexa and its doorbell camera Ring for allegedly violating user privacy issues.。

It is reported that Amazon will pay more than $30 million in fines for the two civil cases.。The smart voice assistant Alexa violated the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act for recording children's voice and location data, and defrauded the parents of these children, which is subject to a $25 million fine.。The doorbell camera Ring is also a customer who has to pay a $5.8 million refund for suspected invasion of privacy.。

  

Case specific circumstances:

  

On Wednesday, the Federal Trade Commission voted to bring charges in two separate cases that could force Amazon to delete some of the data its internet-connected devices collect.。

In the Alexa case, the FTC said Amazon had been cheating users of voice-assisted services for years.。The agency added that it retains the children's recordings indefinitely unless the parents request that the information be deleted, and Amazon often retains the recordings even if the parents request that the recordings be deleted.。

Alvaro Bedoya, a member of the Federal Trade Commission, said: "Amazon keeps children's data indefinitely to refine its speech recognition algorithms," adding that "when parents ask Amazon to delete their children's Alexa voice data, the company does not delete all of the data."。"

Samuel Levine, head of consumer protection at the Federal Trade Commission, said in a statement that Amazon's history of misleading parents, keeping children's recordings indefinitely, and defying parents' removal requests violates the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act and sacrifices privacy for profit.。The law, enacted in 1998, was designed to protect children from online harm.。

In addition, Bedoya said that the ruling on Amazon's Alexa is also a wake-up call to all technology companies that are currently developing artificial intelligence datasets.。

In addition to the fine, the FTC ordered Amazon to overhaul its data deletion practices and adopt stricter and more transparent privacy measures, while requiring the tech giant to delete certain data collected by its internet-connected voice assistants.。

In the Ring case, the FTC accused Amazon's home security camera subsidiary, Ring, of allowing its employees and contractors access to users' private videos and providing lax security measures that allowed hackers to take control of some users' accounts.。

Amazon acquired California-based smart doorbell startup Ring in 2018, and many of the violations cited by the FTC this time occurred before the acquisition.。

In 2017, a former employee of Amazon's Ring doorbell camera division conducted months-long surveillance of female users by installing cameras in bedrooms and bathrooms, the commission said in a court filing.。

The employee is understood to have viewed video data from at least 81 female users and videos of Ring employees using Ring products.。In the indictment, the council said: "This employee continued to conduct surveillance activities for several months without being detected by the company.。A colleague later found out about the misconduct and eventually fired the employee.。

In May 2018, another employee gave a client's recorded information to the client's ex-husband without consent.。In another case, an employee watched their video without the user's knowledge after handing the Ring device to the user.。

Faced with cases like these, Ring can only manage by changing company policy。In early 2019, Ring said the vast majority of in-house employees or contractors could only access customers "private videos with their consent.。

For its part, the FTC said Ring gave employees unrestricted access to customers' sensitive video data, "and because of this dangerously excessive access and lax approach to privacy and security, company employees and third-party contractors were able to view, download, and transmit customers' sensitive video data."。"

Therefore, the agreement reached between the Federal Trade Commission and Ring will expire in 20 years.。As part of the agreement, Ring must disclose to the customer access to customer data by the company and its contractors.。

However, the two settlement agreements require court approval to take effect.。Amazon has posted an announcement in response to the settlement on its official website and Ring's website.。

Amazon spokeswoman Emma Daniels said: "Our devices and services are designed to protect customer privacy and give customers control over their experience.。While we disagree with the FTC about Alexa and Ring and deny breaking the law, reaching a settlement allows us to put those things behind us.。"

In fact, compared to Amazon's $3.2 billion profit in the first quarter, the $30 million-plus fine required to reach a settlement is just a drop in the bucket.。

But more importantly, the settlement underscores the challenges tech companies face in protecting user privacy and raises the alarm about the importance of industry regulation and user privacy.。With the continuous development of the digital age, the protection of user privacy has become an important issue that can not be ignored。Amazon's settlement agreement will have an impact on the industry as a whole, prompting technology companies to strengthen user privacy protection and compliance measures to build user trust and ensure data security.。