30k Amazon employees had access to customer recordings from Alexa from Aug 2018 to Sept 2019: Amazon paid $25M in settlement
Per NYP
The Federal Trade Commission filed a complaint against Amazon, claiming 30,000 employees had access to Alexa voice recordings from August 2018 to September 2019. This resulted in the company paying $25 million in settlements.
As reported by Bloomberg, it was noted that US regulators made the complaint result in this settlement. The FTC gave a statement about how the data, which was supposedly sensitive, was kept for years.
“(Amazon) kept sensitive voice and geolocation data for years, and used it for its own purposes, while putting data at risk of harm from unnecessary access.”
The company was accused of violating "child privacy laws" and even deceiving parents. The report shared how Amazon kept recorded data for years, including kids' voices and locations.
FTC consumer protection chief, Samuel Levine, gave a statement regarding Amazon's actions. The law that the company reportedly broke was from 1998 and was suppose to protect children from harm online.
“Amazon’s history of misleading parents, keeping children’s recordings indefinitely, and flouting parents’ deletion requests violated COPPA and sacrificed privacy for profits,”
It was noted that Amazon had to delete "inactive child accounts" as well as certain voice recordings and geolocation data. The data will be banned from use for the company's algorithm training.
In mid-April, Amazon attempted new measures to get customers to return fewer items on online orders. This included charging fees for returning items to UPS stores.
The company will charge a $1 fee for those who return items to a UPS store when there's a Whole Foods, Amazon Fresh grocery store, or Kohl's closer to their delivery address.
Recently, it was noted that Amazon was working on "Burnham" tech for its home robot called Astro. This tech was reportedly designed to give its home robot ChatGPT-like features.
See flow at unusualwhales.com/flow.
Other News:
- Amazon, $AMZN, is attempting new measures to get customers to return fewer of their online orders, including charging a fee to return items to UPS stores
- Amazon is working on 'Burnham' tech for its home robot Astro to give it ChatGPT-like features
Resources: