Ring Doorbell Cam: Yes, Our Employees Were Creeping On You

The Ring Doorbell company has entered into a settlement agreement with the Federal Trade Commission and they've admitted, their employees were watching your videos without your permission.

In an email to all Ring subscribers sent out on Tuesday, Ring stated -  "On June 16th, 2023, we entered into a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission - the nation’s consumer protection agency - to resolve the FTC’s allegations that more employees and contractors than necessary had access to the stored videos collected by Ring cameras. The FTC alleges that several years ago, a limited number of employees viewed customers’ videos without their permission and without a business reason. These individuals are no longer employed by Ring. Since 2018, we have significantly changed our access and review practices. Now, only a very small number of employees can access videos, and only in very limited circumstances."

While Ring settled with the FTC in the summer, it's only now acknowledging that some $5.8 million in settlement money will be distributed to those affected by the breach, sometime in mid-2024.

Ring claims that no longer will employees have free access to your private videos. However, a small amount of employees will be able to access your videos for the purpose of research and development.

"A small number of video recordings are viewed by our research and development team to improve Ring’s products, services and technology. These video recordings are either from users who have made them publicly available (by posting them on Neighbors or otherwise on the Internet), or from users, team members and their friends and family who have given us explicit permission to use them for this purpose (which they may revoke at any time)."

It's believed that some 55,000 users between January of 2019 and March of 2020 were subjected to the privacy breach.  It's believed more than 10 million homes in America use the Ring doorbell and camera. It's estimated that each affected Ring customer will receive about $105.45 sometime next year as part of the settlement.