Amazon’s Ring fired at least four employees for snooping on user videos

Enlarge / Ring video doorbell. (credit: Ring)

Amazon's Ring line of consumer home surveillance products has drawn quite a bit of attention in recent weeks for how easily bad actors outside the company have been able to access users' accounts. But for Ring, as with many other firms, some of the greatest security risks may come from inside the company.

In response to congressional questioning, Amazon this week admitted to four incidents in the past four years where employees accessed video data they were not supposed to. "Each of these individuals involved in these incidents was authorized to view video data," Amazon said in a letter (PDF), but in all cases, "the attempted access to that data exceeded what was necessary for their job functions."

Ring fired all those employees following "swift action to investigate" and told Congress that following each incident, the company "has taken multiple actions to limit such data access to a smaller number of team members." Additionally, the company said, it "periodically reviews" employees' access to data "to verify they have a continuing need for access" in order to do their jobs.

Read 5 remaining paragraphs | Comments