Amazon fined 40 billion KRW for Alexa and Ring privacy violations

Indefinite Storage of Children's Voices Saved in AI
Unauthorized Viewing of User Videos Installed in Bedrooms, etc.

The world's largest e-commerce company, Amazon, will be fined over 40 billion won for violating privacy regulations.

According to foreign media including CNN in the United States on the 31st of last month (local time), Amazon agreed to pay $25 million (approximately 33.0325 billion won) as part of a settlement in a privacy violation lawsuit related to 'Alexa' filed by the U.S. Department of Justice. Additionally, Amazon will pay $5.8 million (approximately 7.6635 billion won) over allegations that Ring employees unlawfully viewed videos of female users recorded by 'Ring' security cameras installed in bedrooms and other locations.

Alexa is an artificial intelligence (AI) platform developed by Amazon that provides functions such as music playback and weather information through voice commands. Ring is a smart home company acquired by Amazon in 2018, manufacturing smart home devices such as Wi-Fi doorbells and video cameras.

The Department of Justice filed a lawsuit on behalf of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), alleging that speakers powered by Alexa violated the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act by collecting information about children under 13 without parental consent.

According to the FTC, Amazon stored children's voices recorded by Alexa indefinitely unless users requested deletion of voice recordings. Furthermore, Amazon retained data despite not complying with users' deletion requests.

The FTC also claimed that Amazon granted Ring employees unauthorized access to videos recorded by customers, and that Ring employees continued to access customers' videos even after Amazon became aware of the issue.

In response, Amazon stated in a press release, "We do not agree with the FTC's allegations regarding Alexa and Ring or that we violated the law, but separate from this matter, we have decided to settle with the FTC." They added, "As part of the settlement, we will delete information of children who have been inactive for more than 18 months unless parents or guardians provide consent, a measure we have already strongly implemented."

Accordingly, Amazon must delete accounts of inactive children, certain voice recordings, and location information, and is prohibited from using the collected data to train algorithms or improve products.

Meanwhile, according to media reports, this settlement is described as the FTC's first action against Amazon since Lina Khan became chairperson of the FTC in 2021.

Khan, who majored in law, has long monitored Amazon, including writing antitrust papers related to online commerce platforms.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.