Amazon agrees to settle Alexa and Ring privacy violation lawsuits for $30 million

Amazon has agreed to pay over $30 million to settle two lawsuits filed against the retail giant, alleging privacy violations with its Alexa voice assistant and Ring doorbell camera.

On Wednesday, the Federal Trade Commission voted to file charges against Amazon in two separate cases. Both cases could force the online retailer turned major tech company to delete some data acquired through internet connected devices like those powered by the Alexa voice assistant.

In the lawsuit regarding Alexa, the FTC alleges Amazon deceived users for years when it came to the voice assistant service.

Particularly, the FTC said the device captured recordings of children and held onto them unless parents requested to have the recordings deleted.

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Even then, the FTC claimed, Amazon continued to hold onto the transcripts of the recordings.

The agency has ordered Amazon to delete all inactive accounts for children, geolocation data and some voice information.

The FTC imposed a $25 million fine, accusing Amazon of violating the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act. FTC Consumer Protection Chief Samuel Levine also accused Amazon of sacrificing "privacy for profits" in "flouting parents’ deletion requests."

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"We built Alexa with strong privacy protections and customer controls, designed Amazon Kids to comply with COPPA, and collaborated with the FTC before expanding Amazon Kids to include Alexa," Amazon said in a statement on Wednesday. "As part of the settlement, we agreed to make a small modification to our already strong practices and will remove child profiles that have been inactive for more than 18 months unless a parent or guardian chooses to keep them."

Still, FTC Commissioner Alvaro Bedoya accused Amazon of keeping the children’s data to continue refining its algorithm behind the voice recognition system.

"Machine learning is no excuse to break the law," Bedoya tweeted. "Today’s settlement on Amazon Alexa should set off alarms for parents across the country – and is a warning for every AI company sprinting to acquire more and more data."

As for the Ring case, the FTC alleges that the company acquired by Amazon in 2018 allowed employees and contractors to access private videos of consumers. It also provided weak security practices that allowed hackers to control some accounts.

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Ring is a home security camera subsidiary of Amazon, and most of the violations it is accused of took place before Amazon purchased the company.

"Ring promptly addressed the issues at hand on its own years ago, well before the FTC began its inquiry," Amazon said. "Our focus has been and remains on delivering products and features our customers love, while upholding our commitment to protect their privacy and security."

As a result of the order, the FTC is requiring Ring to pay $5.8 million to be used for refunds to consumers.

Federal judges must still approve both the Ring and Alexa orders.

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While Amazon disagrees with the FTC’s allegations regarding both Alexa and Ring, the company said the settlement will help put the matters behind them.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.