from the One-ringy-dingy-two-ringy-dingy... dept.
Reports raise video privacy concerns for Amazon-owned Ring
Amazon-owned smart doorbell maker Ring is facing claims that might give some smart home enthusiasts pause. Recent reports from The Intercept and The Information have accused the company of mishandling videos collected by its line of smart home devices, failing to inform users that their videos would be reviewed by humans and failing to protect the sensitive video footage itself with encryption.
In 2016, Ring moved some of its R&D operations to Ukraine as a cost-saving move. According to The Intercept's sources, that team had "unfettered access to a folder on Amazon's S3 cloud storage service that contained every video created by every Ring camera around the world." That group was also privy to a database that would allow anyone with access the ability to conduct a simple search to find videos linked to any Ring owner. At this time, the video files were unencrypted due to the "sense that encryption would make the company less valuable" expressed by leadership at the company.
At the same time the Ukraine team was allowed this access, Ring "executives and engineers" in the U.S. were allowed "unfiltered, round-the-clock live feeds from some customer cameras" even if that access was completely unnecessary for their work.
Also at The Mercury News.
Previously: Amazon Acquires Ring, Maker of Internet-Connected Doorbells and Cameras, for Over $1 Billion
Amazon Plans to Remove Google's Nest Products After Acquisition of Ring
Related Stories
Amazon has acquired Ring for over $1 billion:
Amazon said Tuesday that it had acquired Ring, a maker of internet-connected doorbells and cameras, pushing more deeply into the home security market. The deal is worth around $1.1 billion, according to a person briefed on the deal who would speak only anonymously because the terms were private.
Ring is best known for a doorbell with a security camera inside. The device allows homeowners to monitor visitors at their front door through an app on their phone, even if they're not at home. Amazon has made home automation a major focus because of the success of its Echo family of products, which allow users to control thermostats, surveillance cameras and other connected devices using voice commands.
[...] James McQuivey, an analyst at Forrester Research, said he believed that Amazon had bought Ring so it could add more intelligent capabilities to its doorbells and cameras, like the ability to use software to recognize faces at the front door. "I think it's about going to the next level and having Alexa say, 'James, your fifth grader just walked in, and I locked the door behind them,'" he said. "It's where these technologies have to go."
Also at The Verge.
Related: Amazon Wants to Deliver Purchases into Your Home
Amazon Key Flaw Could Let Rogue Deliverymen Disable Your Camera
Amazon will stop selling Nest products once its current stock of them runs out:
The impending disappearance of Nest from Amazon marks just the latest development in the acrimonious, anti-consumer feud between Amazon and Google. Nest was absorbed back into Google last month after spending three years as a standalone Alphabet subsidiary. (Google tipped off Nest that Amazon had decided against selling its latest hardware while the companies were still separate.) Amazon has steadfastly refused to sell some Google-branded products like the Google Home voice assistant speaker and the company's Pixel smartphones. In December, the online retailer said it would restart sales of the Chromecast streaming device, but it's been three months and you still can't buy it. Last summer, Amazon launched a Prime Video app for Android, but has yet to add support for streaming its content with a Chromecast.
For its part in this ugly falling out, Google has removed YouTube from Amazon's Fire TV streaming products and the Echo Show / Spot, claiming that Amazon has violated its terms of service with those implementations of the YouTube app. There were once signs that the companies were mending the scorched bridge between them, but that doesn't seem to be the case any longer.
Related:
Amazon Declares War on YouTube by Launching Amazon Video Direct
Google Pulls YouTube off of the Amazon Echo Show
Google's "Manhattan" to Compete With Amazon's Echo Show
Amazon Wants to Deliver Purchases into Your Home
Google Pulls YouTube Off of More Amazon Devices
Google Absorbs Nest, Nest Co-Founder Quits
Amazon Acquires Ring, Maker of Internet-Connected Doorbells and Cameras, for Over $1 Billion
(Score: 1, Troll) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday January 13 2019, @03:44AM (3 children)
Just like Israel is allowed all access to American data.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 13 2019, @04:59AM (1 child)
and how the five eyes spy on each other
and how they all steal data from each other
ya ya ya
(Score: -1, Troll) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday January 13 2019, @05:08AM
Sucka my dicka, you filthy Israeli bastids.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 14 2019, @11:19AM
Skylake?
Minix based ME is 100 percent Israeli, after the former kernel group in Portland got canned. Someone on here or the green site who had been working at Intel in Portland at the time commented on it.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday January 13 2019, @04:22AM
Shut up! Uh huh, okay, what's up? Shut up! [youtube.com]
(Score: 4, Insightful) by SomeGuy on Sunday January 13 2019, @05:17AM (1 child)
It's almost ironic how only a compleate fucking idiot would want a "smart home".
"Smart" phones, "smart" thermostats, "smart" doorbells, all named such to appeal to drooling mindless consumertards. Nothing "smart" about it except for the Asian tech companies that now have piles of voyeuristic information to mine for personal data.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 13 2019, @06:56AM
You're talking about "cloud".
"Smart" is OK, sometimes, actually. It's just that most producers *insist* on implementing "smart" through "cloud". Boycott that stuff!
(Score: 4, Interesting) by realDonaldTrump on Sunday January 13 2019, @08:35AM
But I don't do Amazon ANYTHING. I'm boycotting Amazon. Many people are boycotting Amazon and WPost. Because the guy that owns those cheats on his wife. He's getting a Divorce. But, he already has a girlfriend. It's called adultery, folks. And it's disgusting!!
But, I love Security Camera. I recently got a BIG BIG upgrade to my Security Cameras. It works with the Cameras I already had. Also with the new ones. And Kirstjen of Homeland Security is helping me with that one. We call it, Facial Recognition. Somebody walks by the house, the Computer tells us who it is. It knows. And it's working beautifully -- so incredible. Getting ready to put that one into our magnificent National Parks. And into many places!!! twitter.com/WashTimes/status/1070390932082753536 [twitter.com]
(Score: 4, Insightful) by crafoo on Sunday January 13 2019, @10:12AM (1 child)
The temptation to collect and process as much user data that they can get access to is just too great. There is a gold rush for "big data" to train neural networks. video footage from just about any camera is useful. Even unlabelled data is useful (a human hasn't tagged all objects in scene and drawing bounding boxes around them). Although that is fairly accurately automated now too.
Adding sensors to your house that someone else has access too, and they are not paying you a monthly fee to have in your house, is simply madness. But somehow they talked many people into actually paying _them_ for the privilege. Pretty nuts.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 13 2019, @10:58AM
It's a service. You can implement your own with Raspberry Pi, if you want.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Sunday January 13 2019, @11:06AM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TnkJ8_BmSI [youtube.com]
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 5, Insightful) by maxwell demon on Sunday January 13 2019, @11:17AM
I think the following quote is enough to make any halfway sane person stay away from it, even if nothing else had been disclosed:
If encryption of the videos is perceived as decreasing the value of the company, it tells you they planned to do more with them than just store them for you.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 13 2019, @01:02PM
Don't let a camera near your "ring"