Amazon fires 4 employees for improperly accessing users’ video data

American tech giant, Amazon has revealed that it has fired four of its employees over the past four years for improperly accessing video data from users’ Ring security door bells.

The company has detailed the sackings in its response to questions from five Democratic senators in a November letter to Amazon following the disclosure of Wi-Fi security flaw in Ring devices a month earlier.

Ring has faced several controversies over privacy and security in recent months. Reports last year suggested that Ring workers in Ukraine could view users’ videos without their knowledge. And in December, hackers dumped thousands of Ring user credentials online.

Ring security was again in the spotlight last month after someone used compromised login credentials to remotely access a Ring device and shout obscenities at an eight-year-old girl in Mississippi.

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Privacy advocates have also criticized Ring for its partnerships with dozens of US police departments in which citizens are offered free door bells in exchange for agreeing to provide video footage as part of a public-safety and surveillance program.

On top of these issues, Ring has been criticized for not requiring users to enable two-factor authentication and failing to alert users when a new device connects to an account.

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