Amazon's Ring Faces Severe Privacy Backlash Over Unencrypted Video Access
Amazon's Ring doorbell company faces intense scrutiny after reports reveal unencrypted customer videos are accessible to teams in Ukraine and US executives.
Amazon-owned Ring faces serious privacy accusations regarding how it handles customer video footage. Reports indicate that the smart doorbell maker fails to inform users that human workers review their recordings and fails to protect this sensitive data with encryption.
A development team in Ukraine reportedly has unrestricted access to an unencrypted cloud folder containing every Ring video created globally. US executives also possess unnecessary, round-the-clock access to live customer camera feeds, a situation stemming from leadership concerns that encryption would make the company less valuable.
Ring relies on these human teams in Ukraine to manually tag objects in videos to train its struggling artificial intelligence software. While the company claims it only uses public videos from its Neighbors app or footage from users with explicit consent, it remains unclear if Neighbors users actually realize their videos undergo manual review by these data operators.