A doorbell with a camera in it sounds like a great idea until it starts spying on you. Online retailing great Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) agreed to settle claims about just that Wednesday. News of the settlement sent Amazon stock down slightly in Wednesday afternoon’s trading.
As a result of the settlement, the Federal Trade Commission will receive a $5.8 million payment from Amazon. That will settle claims that the Ring doorbell system was actually spying on its users as a result of the huge amount of video data that Ring allowed both employees and contractors to access.
The FTC referred to Ring’s practice of opening up video data to so many users “…dangerously overbroad access” and noted that Ring practiced a “…lax attitude toward privacy and security.” Since Amazon acquired Ring back in 2018, that left Amazon the target of lawsuits. As a further result, Ring is now required to delete any data that contains a person’s face that was created before 2018. That also includes certain “work products” derived from said faces.
The move does little to sway analysts, who call Amazon stock a Strong Buy thanks to 35 Buy ratings and one Hold. Further, Amazon stock offers investors a 12.2% upside potential thanks to an average price target of $135.30.
