steven36 Posted January 9, 2020 Share Posted January 9, 2020 "We are aware of incidents discussed below where employees violated our policies," a letter from Ring obtained by Motherboard reads. Amazon-owned home security camera company Ring has fired employees for improperly accessing Ring users' video data, according to a letter the company wrote to Senators and obtained by Motherboard. The news highlights a risk across many different tech companies: employees may abuse access granted as part of their jobs to look at customer data or information. In Ring's case this data can be particularly sensitive though, as customers often put the cameras inside their home. "We are aware of incidents discussed below where employees violated our policies," the letter from Ring, dated January 6, reads. "Over the last four years, Ring has received four complaints or inquiries regarding a team member's access to Ring video data," it continues. Ring explains that although each of these people were authorized to view video data, their attempted access went beyond what they needed to access for their job. "In each instance, once Ring was made aware of the alleged conduct, Ring promptly investigated the incident, and after determining that the individual violated company policy, terminated the individual," the letter adds. As well as firing workers, Ring has also taken steps to limit such data access to a smaller number of people, the letter reads. It says three employees can currently access stored customer videos. As The Intercept previously reported, Ring granted a number of workers in Ukraine access to Ring user video for research purposes. In the new letter, Ring says "The R&D team in Ukraine can only access publicly available videos and videos available from Ring employees, contractors, and friends and family of employees or contractors with their express consent." Ring's letter was in response to one multiple Senators sent to the company in November 2019. In that, Senators Ron Wyden, Chris Van Hollen, Edward J. Markey, Christopher A. Coons, and Gary C. Peters asked Ring multiple questions about the security of Ring's systems. In response to a wave of incidents where hackers broke into Ring users' accounts and then harassed customers through their devices, Ring has implemented a number of new security features, such as requiring new signups to use two-factor authentication. In December Motherboard found multiple security issues with the Ring platform, such as Ring allowing logins from unknown IP addresses. Ring has since introduced warning messages when someone logs in from a new location. “Requiring two-factor for new accounts is a step in the right direction, but there are millions of consumers who already have a Ring camera in their homes who remain needlessly vulnerable to hackers. Amazon needs to go further—by protecting all Ring devices with two-factor authentication. It is also disturbing to learn that Ring’s encryption of user videos lags behind other companies, who ensure that only users have the encryption keys to access their data," Senator Wyden said in a statement. When asked specific questions on the termination of employees who abused data access, a Ring spokesperson told Motherboard in an email, "We do not comment on personnel matters." Update: This piece has been updated to include a statement from Ring. Source Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lurch234 Posted January 9, 2020 Share Posted January 9, 2020 A perfect example of how technology just complicates your lives needlessly. I remember in the "so relaxed" 1970s' when the police would actually go to your home during their "Operation Volcan" ,if asked, to point out your homes vulnerabilities. "Curiosity killed the cat". Remember that when you are thinking of putting anything in the cloud. There will always be someone who'll want to or can snoop around. Just look at what happened with my financial institution (Desjardins) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aum Posted January 9, 2020 Share Posted January 9, 2020 9 minutes ago, lurch234 said: A perfect example of how technology just complicates your lives needlessly... The worse side effect is [that] it tends to minimize even further the so-called 10% of brain we (humans) supposedly use. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steven36 Posted January 9, 2020 Author Share Posted January 9, 2020 1 hour ago, lurch234 said: "Curiosity killed the cat". Remember that when you are thinking of putting anything in the cloud. There will always be someone who'll want to or can snoop around. Just look at what happened with my financial institution (Desjardins) People spying on people is nothing new it been happening forever like when they made cordless phones . People used scanner radios to listen in , it may of been illegal but people still done it and the Goverment wiretapped phones even before they made cordless phones and they were party lines. If you transmit on the open airways without it being scrambled someone could be listening thats one of the caveats with technology in order to communicate you have send a transmission and someone have to be receiving it and you never know when it may be a man in the middle. . it just is worse now instead of it being someone close by they could be anywhere in the world. Long distance use to cost money but with computers everyone can talk to most anybody were before the only way to do it for free was shoot DX on radio bands and most of that was regulated by the Goverment were it was never dependable were you needed a lic and so forth so it would never take over the telephone industry . Up tell they made the internet the airways was controlled by the Goverment and now they want control of the internet as well. I's all about having power over the people. Apple co founders got there start by hacking Long distance selling boxes that gave it to you for free to get around Government regulation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lurch234 Posted January 9, 2020 Share Posted January 9, 2020 49 minutes ago, steven36 said: People used scanner radios to listen in My sister could listen to one of her neighbors conversations on her phone when the first cordless crap came along! And not on purpose, even. lol You only had a few bands to choose from. So... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steven36 Posted January 9, 2020 Author Share Posted January 9, 2020 2 minutes ago, lurch234 said: My sister could listen to one of her neighbors conversations on her phone when the first cordless crap came along! And not on purpose, even. lol You only had a few bands to choose from. So... Any USA technology by Big tech in the Cloud is already regulated by the Goverment by the cloud act . That why Germany ban Office 365 in schools . But the thing about the internet you can always use services not from the USA but many other countries have there own data retention laws so you may be no better off unless your very up on world law. Were screwed regardless if it not Big Tech employees listening its some goverment have access to what you did online. The USA don't have data retention laws the reason they have access to your data is tech mines it for profit . Its up to the service do they want to keep logs . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vibranium Posted January 9, 2020 Share Posted January 9, 2020 Soon nothing will be safe anymore. The cure is worse than the disease. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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