Ring camera employees fired after spying on customers: 'We are aware of incidents'
At least four Ring employees were reportedly fired after the company discovered they had abused their positions to unrightfully access customer footage.
The revelation came in a letter that Brian Huseman, Amazon's vice president of public policy, wrote in response to a number of senators who wrote to Ring's parent company to express safety concerns about the device in November 2019, Motherboard reports.
"Over the last four years, Ring has received four complaints or inquiries regarding a team member’s access to Ring video data," Huseman said in the response letter, dated Jan. 6. "Although each of the individuals involved in these incidents was authorized to view video data, the attempted access to that data exceeded what was necessary for their job functions."
The company went on to say that once it learned of the alleged conduct, it investigated each incident and terminated the individuals who were found to have violated company policy. It added that since then, it has taken "multiple actions" to limit the number of employees who are able to access customer videos.
A rash of recent incidents involving Ring cameras has left both owners of the security devices and lawmakers feeling uneasy.
In December, a Georgia woman was jolted awake by a man who unscrupulously accessed her Ring camera and used it to call to her as she slept.
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Later that month, a Texas mother released footage of her two "frantic" children sprinting from their family home after a virtual intruder began screaming racist and violent threats through the family's Ring camera.
A Tennessee couple has also claimed that a stranger hacked their Ring system and used the technology to talk to their 8-year-old daughter while she was alone in her room.
Following all security breach instances, the company urged customers to "enable two-factor authentication on their Ring account, add Shared Users (instead of sharing login credentials), use strong passwords, and regularly change their passwords."
