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Amazon to Pay $30M for Ring and Alexa Privacy Violations: Tips for Protecting Your Smart Home Data

As Amazon settles over alleged privacy violations, here’s how you can help keep your personal data safe.

Amazon will pay two separate penalties for privacy violations, the Federal Trade Commission has announced: $25 million for allegedly not deleting children’s data and $5.8 million for failing to restrict employee and contractor access to Ring security videos.

Amazon prevented parents from deleting their children’s voice and geolocation data acquired through the Alexa voice assistant, and stored and used the data for several years to improve the Alexa algorithm to better understand children’s speech patterns and accents, the FTC alleged Wednesday.

This put the data «at risk of harm from unnecessary access,» according to the FTC. 

The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act Rule «does not allow companies to keep children’s data forever for any reason, and certainly not to train their algorithms,» said Samuel Levine, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, in a statement. 

Amazon said in a blog post that it disagrees with the FTC’s claims and denies violating the law.

«We take our responsibilities to our customers and their families very seriously,» Amazon said. «We work hard to protect children’s privacy, and we have built robust privacy protections into our children’s products and services.»

Read more: These 6 Tips Will Help Keep Your Personal Data Private

The FTC on Wednesday also leveled a $5.8 million penalty against Amazon’s Ring. Ring, which was acquired by Amazon in 2018, sells video doorbells, indoor and outdoor cameras and home security services. It has long been criticized for its privacy practices, including sharing doorbell footage with police departments across the US. The settlement announced Wednesday related to allegedly failing to restrict access to customers’ videos across its employees and contractors, and using those videos to train its algorithms without consent.

«One employee over several months viewed thousands of video recordings belonging to female users of Ring cameras that surveilled intimate spaces in their homes such as their bathrooms or bedrooms. The employee wasn’t stopped until another employee discovered the misconduct,» the FTC alleges. 

Ring’s failure to «implement basic measures to monitor and detect employees’ video access» meant the company also didn’t know who or how many employees accessed private videos inappropriately. 

Read more: Home Security Cheat Sheet: Our Best Tips for Keeping Your Home Safe

Ring didn’t seek customer consent for human review of their videos until January 2018, the FTC alleged.

Ring’s lack of security, including not offering multifactor authentication until 2019, meant hackers exploited account vulnerabilities to compromise 55,000 customers’ accounts in the US, the complaint says. Of those 55,000 customers, 910 accounts across 1,250 devices saw the hacker take «additional invasive actions, such as accessing a stored video, accessing a live stream video or viewing a customer’s profile,» the complaint details. In 20 instances, the hackers maintained access to customer devices for over a month.

«In many instances, the bad actors were not just passively viewing customers’ sensitive video data. Rather, the bad actors took advantage of the camera’s two-way communication functionality to harass, threaten, and insult individuals — including elderly individuals and children — whose rooms were monitored by Ring cameras, and to set off alarms and change important device settings,» the FTC’s complaint says.

The $5.8 million penalty will be used to refund customers, and Ring is required to delete data and videos if obtained prior to 2018 and «delete any work products it derived from these videos.»

Ring’s statement likewise disagreed with the FTC’s claims. «We want our customers to know that the FTC complaint draws on matters that Ring promptly addressed on its own, well before the FTC began its inquiry; mischaracterizes our security practices; and ignores the many protections we have in place for our customers,» Ring said.

How to protect your private data

Bad actors are a threat to your security, and there are a number of steps you can take to help yourself. Here’s how to make sure your home Wi-Fi is secure, how to protect your home security against hacks and the best home security systems of 2023 — including the best cheap home security systems and the best DIY home security systems. You could also look at getting a password manager so your accounts are safer, and here’s CNET’s smart home privacy guide on how to delete your voice recordings across Amazon, Apple and Google.

As companies are keeping more and more of your personal data, here are CNET’s tips on how to keep Facebook from tracking you, how to prevent yourself from being tracked via your Apple AirTags and how to get Google to remove your personal data from search results.

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Technologies

Apple Reportedly Plans to Send Siri Engineers to AI Coding Bootcamp

The move comes just weeks before the company is expected to unveil a new Siri.

Apple plans to send dozens of Siri engineers to a multiweek AI coding bootcamp, The Information reported Wednesday. The move comes less than two months before the company is widely expected to unveil a new Siri experience as part of a broader AI reboot.

A group of fewer than 200 engineers will be sent to the bootcamp, leaving approximately 60 members of the core Siri development team behind to continue working on Siri, while another 60 will evaluate Siri’s performance, according to The Information. The outlet also reported that AI has grown in popularity in some Apple divisions, prompting some teams within the company to allocate large parts of their budgets to Claude Code.

Apple representatives didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Siri, once a pioneer, has lagged behind its rivals in voice assistants. Apple had planned to roll out a smarter, AI-driven Siri in 2025 as part of its Apple Intelligence initiative, but executives delayed the launch until spring 2026, admitting the early version wasn’t reliable enough to ship.  

For Apple, the move would mark another attempt to reset expectations around its AI strategy after repeated delays to its more advanced Siri ambitions. The news also comes as John Giannandrea, Apple’s former AI chief, is reportedly leaving the company this week after stepping down from that role in December. 

The new Siri experience is expected to be introduced at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference on June 8 and would arrive as part of iOS 27, iPadOS 27 and MacOS 27 later this year, according to a Bloomberg report in March. The report says Apple is testing out a new Siri that would make the assistant feel more like a standalone AI chatbot — think ChatGPT or Claude — rather than the current built-in tool.  

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Technologies

Google Will Pay $135M to Android Phone Owners. Learn Who’s Eligible and How to Get Paid

If you used an Android phone with cell service in the last nine years, you could be eligible for compensation.

For years, Google has been accused of harvesting data from Android phones without users’ consent. A California lawsuit was settled for $314 million last year, and another class action lawsuit recently reached a resolution that could mean payouts for another 100 million people.

While not admitting fault, Google reached a preliminary settlement in the class action lawsuit Taylor v. Google LLC in January, agreeing to pay $135 million, and the official settlement website for the lawsuit is now live. 

The final approval hearing won’t occur until June 23, when the court will hear objections and consider whether Google’s settlement is fair. After that, the court will decide whether to approve the $135 million settlement. 

In the meantime, if you qualify and want to be paid as part of the settlement, you can select your preferred payment method on the official website. There, you can find information on speaking at the June 23 court hearing and on how to exclude yourself or write to the court to object by May 29.

As part of the settlement, Google will update its Google Play terms of service to clarify that certain data transfers do occur passively even when you’re not using your Android device, and that cellular data may be relied upon when not connected to Wi-Fi. This can’t always be disabled, but users will be asked to consent to it when setting up their device. 

Google will also fully stop collecting data when its «allow background data usage» option is toggled off. 

Who can be part of the Google data settlement?

In order to join the Taylor v. Google LLC settlement, you must meet four qualifications:

  1. Be a living, individual human being in the US.
  2. Have used an Android mobile device with a cellular data plan.
  3. Have used the aforementioned device at any time from Nov. 12, 2017, to the date when the settlement receives final approval.
  4. You’re not a class member in the Csupo v. Google LLC lawsuit, which is similar but specifically for California residents.

The final approval hearing is on June 23, so you can add your payment method until then. The hearing’s date and time may change, and any updates will be posted on the settlement website. 

If you choose to do nothing, you will still be issued a settlement payment, but you may not receive it if you don’t select a payment method.

How much could I get paid by Google?

It’s not currently known exactly how much each settlement class member will receive, but the cap is $100. Payments will be distributed after final court approval and after any appeals are resolved.

After all administrative, tax and attorney costs are paid, the settlement administrator will attempt to pay each member an equal amount. If any funds remain after payments are sent, and it’s economically feasible, they will be redistributed to members who were previously and successfully paid. If it’s not economically feasible, the funds will go to an organization approved by the court.

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Technologies

Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered, Squirrel With a Gun and More Are Coming to PlayStation Plus in April

Some other games might be fun, but Squirrel With a Gun has my full attention.

Sometimes when I play a game, I want a deep story that makes me feel connected to the characters. Other times, I want a nonsensical romp that allows me to shut my brain off and laugh for a minute. Squirrel with a Gun seems to be that kind of game. And good news, PlayStation Plus subscribers can play that game and others starting on April 21.

PlayStation Plus is Sony’s version of Xbox Game Pass, offering subscribers a large and constantly expanding library of games. PlayStation Plus has three tiers — Essential ($10 a month), Extra ($15 a month) and Premium ($18 a month) — which each give subscribers access to games. But only Extra and Premium tier subscribers can access the PlayStation Plus Game Catalog, while Essential subscribers can access only the monthly games. 

Here are all the games Sony is adding to the PlayStation Plus Game Catalog in April. You can also check out the games all PS Plus subscribers can play until May 4.

Squirrel With a Gun

What more do I need to say about this game? You’re a squirrel, and you have a gun, making you potentially the most American woodland critter behind a bald eagle. After escaping a secret facility, you’re on the hunt for some acorns while you try to evade and defeat the Agents in this sandbox puzzle platformer game. You’ll find out how far our furry friend is willing to go to get their nut — acorns are nuts, get your mind out of the gutter.

Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered

Huge robotic dinosaur-looking machines are the dominant force in this award-winning action roleplaying game. You play as Aloy, a huntress who was cast out of the mountain-dwelling Nora tribe. In your search for answers about your past, you’ll encounter machine and human enemies, beautiful landscapes and a plan to reclaim the land once and for all.

Monster Train

Hell has frozen over, the celestial forces of heaven are coming to extinguish the last burning pyre, and it’s up to you to stop them. Monster Train is a unique roguelike deck builder that adds a twist by spreading your playing field out to three vertical areas. With over 250 cards to use and six different monster clans to call on, you’ll have plenty of ways to ward off your enemies and take back your home.

Other games coming to PlayStation Plus

Those are some of the games you’ll see on PlayStation Plus on April 21, and you’ll also see these games on the service at that time.

*Premium subscribers only.

For more on PlayStation Plus, here is what to know about the service and what games all PlayStation Plus subscribers can play until May 4.

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