Amazon is ordered to pay $25 million to settle a lawsuit claiming that its voice assistant Alexa violated children’s privacy rights.
The incident came to light after many parents complained that Amazon continues to use children’s voice recordings as research data to improve the product even after deletion requests.
Reports suggest that more than 800,000 under the age of 13 have their own Alexa accounts.
Alexa is very popular among young children who have not learned to type yet. They can use this voice assistant to watch their favorite cartoons or play music simply by talking to it.
It’s no doubt that Amazon Alexa has helped both children and their parents in many ways.
FTC certainly recognized its benefits, especially for children with disabilities. To support the cause, FTC also relaxed some of the COPPA rules and allowed a certain level of information storage to ensure that Alexa could help these children better.
However, problems ensued when Amazon started recording these voice commands without the parent’s consent. In some cases, Amazon also retained location information from the kids, which clearly violates the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998.
What Happens Now?
Paying a sum of $25m is nothing for a massive company like Amazon. So is it even a fair compensation?
Well, if you look at the other rules of the order proposed by FTC, you’ll realize that Amazon is surely paying for its mistake in other ways. The proposed order states:
- Amazon will not be allowed to store any data concerning location and voice recordings, especially voice recordings of children.
- All inactive children user accounts have to be deleted immediately
- All users have to be informed about the FTC-DOJ action against the company
- All users have to be informed about data retention and deletion practices
- Compulsory creation of a privacy program concerning geolocation data
- Privacy policy regarding voice recordings and geolocation cannot be misrepresented to the users.
The company seems to have landed in quite a pickle this time. This isn’t the only lawsuit against them. Another popular Amazon subsidiary— Ring— is also under fire for privacy concerns.
The product line is known for its home surveillance and doorbell cameras. However, regulators claim that Amazon allowed its employees and contractors to illegally view private videos of the users. An additional fine of $5.8 million has been imposed on the company.
While we disagree with the FTC’s claims and deny violating the law, this settlement puts the matter behind us.Amazon
Amazon isn’t the first company to be under fire for violating Children’s privacy rights. Recently, the law had to be enforced on many popular platforms and products such as YouTube and Epic Games.
Privacy is a major issue today, especially when it comes to children. Young and vulnerable kids might be smart enough to use these online platforms, but they are yet to understand the consequences of sharing such sensitive data online. Tech companies, on the other hand, have been taking advantage of this naivety for their personal benefit.
