Technologies

Amazon to Pay $30M Over Ring and Alexa Data Privacy Violations

As Amazon pays up for alleged privacy breaches, here are some tips on how to keep your data safe.

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

Amazon’s settlement with the FTC followed a complaint alleging 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.

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

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

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 alleged.

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, the FTC said.

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 even offering multifactor authentication until 2019, meant hackers exploited account vulnerabilities to access live video streams, stored videos and account profiles from 55,000 customers in the US, the complaint said.

Hackers even «used cameras’ two-way functionality to harass, threaten and insult consumers — including elderly individuals and children — whose rooms were monitored by Ring cameras, and to change important device settings,» the FTC said.

The $5.8 million penalty will be used to refund customers.

The FTC said Ring is also 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.

Technologies

Facebook Brings Back Local Job Listings: How to Apply

One of Facebook’s most practical features from 2022 is being revived by Meta.

On the hunt for work? A Local Jobs search is being rolled out by Meta to make it easier for people in the US to discover and apply for nearby work directly on Facebook. The feature is inside Facebook Marketplace, Groups and Pages, Meta said last week, letting employers post openings and job seekers filter roles by distance, category or employment type.

You can apply or message employers directly through Facebook Messenger, while employers can publish job listings with just a few taps — similar to how you would post items for sale on Marketplace.

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Facebook offered a Jobs feature before discontinuing it in 2022, pushing business hiring toward its other platforms. Its return suggests Meta is attempting to expand Facebook’s usefulness beyond social networking and to position it once again as a hub for community-driven opportunities.

«We’ve always been about connecting with people, whether through shared interests or key life events,» the press release states. «Now, if you’re looking for entry-level, trade and service industry employment in your community, Facebook can help you connect with local people and small businesses who are hiring.»

How to get started with Local Jobs on Facebook

According to Meta, Local Jobs will appear as a dedicated section in Facebook Marketplace starting this week. If you’re 18 or older, you can:

Tap the Marketplace tab on the Facebook app or website.
Select Jobs to browse available positions nearby.
Use filters for job type, category and distance.
Tap Apply or message the employer directly via Messenger.

Businesses and page admins can post jobs by creating a new listing in Marketplace or from their Facebook Page. Listings can include job details, pay range, and scheduling information and will appear in local searches automatically.

The Local Jobs feature is rolling out across the US now, with Meta saying it plans to expand it in the months ahead.

Technologies

Tesla Has a New Range of Affordable Electric Cars: How Much They Cost

The new, stripped-back versions of the Model Y and Model 3 have a more affordable starting price.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for Oct. 22 #598

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for Oct. 22, No. 598.

Looking for the most recent Strands answer? Click here for our daily Strands hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Today’s NYT Strands puzzle is a fun one — I definitely have at least two of these in my house. Some of the answers are a bit tough to unscramble, so if you need hints and answers, read on.

I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands theme is: Catch all.

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: A mess of items.

Clue words to unlock in-game hints

Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:

BATE, LICE, SLUM, CAPE, HOLE, CARE, BARE, THEN, SLAM, SAMBA, BACK

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you have all of them (I originally thought there were always eight but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers:

TAPE, COIN, PENCIL, BATTERY, SHOELACE, THUMBTACK

Today’s Strands spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is JUNKDRAWER. To find it, look for the J that’s five letters down on the far-left row, and wind down, over and then up.

Quick tips for Strands

#1: To get more clue words, see if you can tweak the words you’ve already found, by adding an «S» or other variants. And if you find a word like WILL, see if other letters are close enough to help you make SILL, or BILL.

#2: Once you get one theme word, look at the puzzle to see if you can spot other related words.

#3: If you’ve been given the letters for a theme word, but can’t figure it out, guess three more clue words, and the puzzle will light up each letter in order, revealing the word.