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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
(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"