Penalty Amount
$5,800,000
Consumers Affected
55,000
The FTC charged Ring LLC with allowing employees to access private customer videos without consent and failing to secure user accounts, leading to hackers controlling cameras. Under a proposed consent order, Ring must pay $5.8 million in refunds, delete unlawfully accessed data, and implement a privacy and security program.
Ring must pay $5.8 million for consumer refunds, delete all customer videos and derived data from before 2018, implement a privacy and security program with safeguards on human video review and multi-factor authentication, report unauthorized access incidents to the FTC, notify consumers about the action, and is prohibited from profiting from unlawfully accessed videos.
In-house legal teams should review all vendor, customer, and data processing agreements involving Ring or similar IoT/security camera providers. Focus on clauses governing data access rights (especially employee/contractor access), security obligations (encryption, authentication), audit rights, data retention/deletion, and breach notification. Required changes may include: adding mandatory multi-factor authentication for all account access, restricting human video review to legitimate business purposes with audit logs, requiring prompt deletion of unlawfully accessed data, implementing data minimization principles, and ensuring refund mechanisms for harmed consumers. Employee agreements should also be updated to reflect new privacy safeguards.
Entity
Ring LLC
Also known as: Ring
Industry
TechnologyOfficial Press Release
https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2023/05/ftc-says-ring-employees-illegally-surveilled-customers-failed-stop-hackers-taking-control-users
proposed stipulated order ring
https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/ftc_gov/pdf/proposed_stipulated_order_ring.pdf
complaint ring
https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/ftc_gov/pdf/complaint_ring.pdf
Federal Trade Commission Enforcement Page
https://www.ftc.gov/enforcement
"Ring LLC"
"$5.8 million"
"allowing any employee or contractor to access consumers’ private videos and by failing to implement basic privacy and security protections, enabling hackers to take control of consumers’ accounts, cameras, and videos."
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$106.8M
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