DING-DONG

Amazon Will Pay $30M to Settle Ring, Alexa Privacy Suits

In one settlement, the company agreed to shell out $25 million to settle allegations it illegally retained children’s data through the Alexa voice assistant.

Amazon agreed to fork over just above $30 million to settle two separate privacy violation cases with the Federal Trade Commission, according to court filings on Wednesday. The company settled allegations of privacy lapses through the Alexa voice assistant for $25 million, with the original lawsuit claiming it had illegally retained recordings of children and their geolocation information. It also agreed to delete young users’ inactive accounts, as well as the retained data in question. The FTC’s other suit targeted Amazon’s Ring division, alleging that employees and third-party contractors were given unrestricted access to homeowners’ videos. The company is set to pay $5.8 million to settle those claims. “While we disagree with the FTC’s claims regarding both Alexa and Ring, and deny violating the law, these settlements put these matters behind us,” Amazon.com said in a statement, according to Reuters.