List of All Articles with Tag 'tech'

An employee used Amazon’s Ring cameras to spy on female users in their bedrooms and bathrooms, according to US officials. Various staff members used the company’s smart home cameras – intended to allow people to watch their own homes when they are away – to watch people without their knowledge, according to the US Federal Trade Commission. Amazon settled for $5.8 million in this case, which said that one employee had watched 81 female customers and Ring employees through their cameras. The company has been hit by two substantial fines over violating users’ privacy. The other accused of breaching childrens’ rights by failing to delete Alexa recordings, even when requested by their parents, leading to a separate $25 million fine. The FTC is also probing Amazon.com’s $1.7 billion deal to buy iRobot Corp, which was announced in August 2022 in Amazon’s latest push into smart home devices, and has a separate antitrust probe underway into Amazon. Amazon, which purchased Ring in April 2018, pledged to make some changes in its practices. “While we disagree with the FTC’s claims regarding both Alexa and Ring, and deny violating the law, these settlements put these matters behind us,” Amazon.com said in a statement. The FTC said Ring gave employees unrestricted access to customers’ sensitive video data: “As a result of this dangerously overbroad access and lax attitude toward privacy and security, employees and third-party contractors were able to view, download, and transfer customers’ sensitive video data.” In one instance in 2017, an employee of Ring viewed videos made by at least 81 female customers and Ring employees using Ring products. “Undetected by Ring, the employee continued spying for months,” the FTC said. A colleague noticed the misconduct and the employee was eventually terminated, the FTC complaint said. In May 2018, an employee gave information about a customer’s recordings to the person’s ex-husband without consent, the complaint said. In another instance, an employee was found to have given Ring devices to people and then watched their videos without their knowledge, the FTC said. As part of the FTC agreement with Ring, which expires after 20 years, Ring is required to disclose to customers how much access to their data the company and its contractors have. In February 2019, Ring changed its policies so that most Ring employees or contractors could only access a customer’s private video with that person’s consent. FTC Commissioner Alvaro Bedoya told Reuters the settlements should send a message to tech companies that their need to collect data was not an excuse to break the law. “This is a very clear signal to them,” he said. The fines, totaling $30.8 million, represent a fraction of Amazon’s $3.2 billion first-quarter profit. In its complaint against Amazon.com filed in Washington state, the FTC said that it violated rules protecting children’s privacy and rules against deceiving consumers who used Alexa. For example, the FTC complaint says that Amazon told users it would delete voice transcripts and location information upon request, but then failed to do so. “The unlawfully retained voice recordings provided Amazon with a valuable database for training the Alexa algorithm to understand children, benefiting its bottom line at the expense of children’s privacy,” the FTC said. Additional reporting by agencies Read More Twitter’s head of trust and safety resigns from Elon Musk’s platform Mark Zuckerberg reveals new VR headset ahead of Apple AI chatbot taken down after it gives ‘harmful advice’ on eating disorders Twitter’s head of trust and safety resigns from Elon Musk’s platform Mark Zuckerberg reveals new VR headset ahead of Apple AI chatbot taken down after it gives ‘harmful advice’ on eating disorders

TOKYO Japan's Personal Information Protection Commission on Friday said it had issued a warning to OpenAI, the Microsoft-backed

By Zeba Siddiqui SAN FRANCISCO Hackers have stolen data from the systems of a number of users of

Twitter’s head of trust and safety says that she has resigned from Elon Musk’s social media platform. Ella Irwin was in charge of content moderation at the company, which has faced allegations of an increase in harmful content since the Tesla CEO bought the company last October. Ms Irwin only took over the job from Yoel Roth last November after he also resigned from the San Francisco-based company. She confirmed her resignation to Reuters on Thursday. Neither Mr Irwin nor Mr Musk has posted on Twitter about her departure. Mr Muk announced earlier this month that he was hiring Linda Yaccarino, NBCUniversal’s former advertising chief, to replace him as Twitter’s new CEO. Twitter investor Fidelity says the company is now worth just a third of the $44bn that the billionaire paid for it. Mr Musk has publically admitted he paid too much for the company, a deal he tried repeatedly to get out of before closing the deal. Mr Musk has made huge staff cuts since he bought the company, with the original headcount of around 7,5000 employees being slashed to below 2,000 by February. The company has struggled to keep advertisers with many company’s not wanting their brands or products to appear alongside unsuitable and unmoderated content. Read More Elon Musk is once again world’s richest person Elon Musk’s visit to China should send a shiver down the spines of Western governments AOC warns Elon Musk is ‘testing waters’ to interfere in 2024 election

This week’s new entertainment releases include an album from Foo Fighters and some lost songs by the late Kenny Rogers, a new gritty HBO series from “Euphoria” creator Sam Levinson called “The Idol” starring Lily-Rose Depp and The Weeknd

By Dawn Chmielewski Netflix Inc shareholders on Thursday withheld their support for the company's executive pay package, in

Airbnb is suing New York City over rules that the company says would make it much more difficult for people to turn their property into short-term rentals

Broadcom Inc., one of the world’s biggest chipmakers, predicted that sales tied to artificial intelligence are on track

WASHINGTON Boeing Co will "stand down" from preparations for its first crewed Starliner test flight to space, which

By Kylie Madry MEXICO CITY Latin American property technology startup Tuhabi is set to receive a $50 million

Broadcom Inc forecast third-quarter revenue above market estimates on Thursday, as it became the latest chip firm to

A Los Angeles startup that is designing facilities to remove carbon dioxide from the ocean says it has struck a pre-purchase agreement with Boeing