Amazon Faces Millions in Fines for Alexa and Ring Privacy Violations

Amazon has agreed to pay $25m to settle allegations by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) that tens of thousands of its employees had access to Alexa users' voice recordings picked up by the smart device's speakers. The FTC claimed that 30,000 Amazon employees were able to listen to Alexa customers' recordings between August 2018 and September 2019. Amazon was accused of violating a child privacy law and of deceiving parents by keeping for years kids' voice and location data recorded by Alexa. The settlement obliges Amazon to delete certain data collected by its internet-connected digital assistant and overhaul its data deletion practices.