'Ring' Upgrades Privacy Settings After Accusations It Shares Data With Facebook and Google (cbsnews.com) 26
Amazon's Ring doorbell cameras just added two new privacy and security features "amid rising scrutiny on the company," reports The Hill, including "a second layer of authentication by requiring users to enter a one-time code shared via email or SMS when they try to log in to see the feed from their cameras starting this week...
"Until recently the company did not notify users when their accounts had been logged in to, meaning that hackers could have accessed camera feeds without owners being aware."
But CBS News reports that the changes appeared "two weeks after a study showed the company shares customers' personal information with Facebook, Google and other parties without users' consent." In late January, an Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) study found the company regularly shares user data with Facebook, including that of Ring users who don't have accounts on the social media platform... EFF claims the company shares a lot of other user data, including people's names, email addresses, when the doorbell app was being used, the number of devices a user has, model numbers of devices, user's unique internet addresses and more. Such information could allow third parties to know when Ring users are at home or away, and potentially target them with advertising for services based on that info...
The change will let Ring users block the company from sharing most, but not all, of their data. A company spokesperson said people will be able to opt out of those sharing agreements "where applicable." The spokesperson declined to clarify what "where applicable" might mean.
Evan Greer, deputy director of digital rights organization Fight for the Future, shared a skeptical response with The Hill.
"No amount of security updates will change the fact that these devices are enabling a nationwide, for-profit, surveillance empire. Amazon Ring is fundamentally incompatible with democracy and human rights."
"Until recently the company did not notify users when their accounts had been logged in to, meaning that hackers could have accessed camera feeds without owners being aware."
But CBS News reports that the changes appeared "two weeks after a study showed the company shares customers' personal information with Facebook, Google and other parties without users' consent." In late January, an Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) study found the company regularly shares user data with Facebook, including that of Ring users who don't have accounts on the social media platform... EFF claims the company shares a lot of other user data, including people's names, email addresses, when the doorbell app was being used, the number of devices a user has, model numbers of devices, user's unique internet addresses and more. Such information could allow third parties to know when Ring users are at home or away, and potentially target them with advertising for services based on that info...
The change will let Ring users block the company from sharing most, but not all, of their data. A company spokesperson said people will be able to opt out of those sharing agreements "where applicable." The spokesperson declined to clarify what "where applicable" might mean.
Evan Greer, deputy director of digital rights organization Fight for the Future, shared a skeptical response with The Hill.
"No amount of security updates will change the fact that these devices are enabling a nationwide, for-profit, surveillance empire. Amazon Ring is fundamentally incompatible with democracy and human rights."
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"...you need to be taken out back and shot. "
That seems a little harsh. Maybe just a good ol' fashioned horse-whipping would suffice?
As outrageous as it sounds, some of us don't watch every episode of every TV show and follow the canon with rapt attention, taking notes and memorizing the character's backstories. Please forgive us for having families and jobs and hobbies and lives and and stuff.
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"Please forgive us for having families and jobs and hobbies and lives and and stuff."
No.
Re: THE ROMULANS CREATED THE BORG (Score:1)
Share? How silly. (Score:4, Funny)
Obviously they don't share anything, they sell it. Doesn't anybody know how businesses work? ;)
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I'm wondering if I can GDPR them. If they sell data that includes my image and potentially other information like my location when the image was captured then I should in theory be able to force them to hand it over.
The problem is that they may have no way to identify me. But the people they sell it to might, e.g. facial recognition. I'm still pondering this one.
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I know what it is (Score:3)
Hyperbole much? (Score:2)
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If someone has the temerity to state something like, "Amazon Ring is fundamentally incompatible with democracy and human rights", I simply cannot accept anything else they may say as rational or relevant.
It’s like saying a grain of sand is responsible for the beach. No one notices each grain, but if the tide brings them in at a steady pace, before you know it there’s a beach where none existed before.
Ring is violating the GDPR (Score:1)
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If a person lives in the UK but owns property int eh USA, they are explicitly banned from recording and sharing data if the user wants to opt out, right?
Wouldn't that be sort of ironic, given all the cameras already in use all over the place in the UK?
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Shocking (Score:2)
"'Ring' Upgrades Privacy Settings After Accusations It Shares Data With Facebook and Google"
Oh my goodness, you mean a sleazy, for-profit company with a sketchy privacy track record has been secretly selling its customers data to a couple of other dodgy companies with sketchy privacy track records?
BRB, going to my fainting couch.
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There answer is a not so secure 2FA? (Score:2)
Amazon.com already uses Google authenticator. WTH didn't they use this for Ring?
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Amazon.com is only a small part of Amazon. Plus Ring was bought by Amazon, not created by it and runs as a separate company. I am sure there entities owned by Microsoft that use AWS and vice versa. These megacompanies are massive.
TFA WTF? (Score:1)
I chatted Ring customer service shortly after this the news broke and this was the result. I will let it speak for itself. I am not particularly proud of my wee hours ranting and bleary eyed typos but the Ring responses were infuriatingly vague and seemed to me to be a tad well-rehearsed. Particularly annoying was the attempt to blame the issue on some unnamed entity.
It seemed like it could be helpful to document the conversation here, in case others have had the same result.
This is formatted but 100