Amazon Ring Found Sharing Sensitive User Data With Third Parties Including Google: Report

Data leaks and data mining to third parties often involve sensitive user information. Usually, we can keep our data is safe by frequently changing passwords and being wary of malicious sites. However, here's a case where security footages and data of users were shared. A report notes that Amazon Ring was found to be sharing data with third parties.

Amazon Ring Data

Ring is a doorbell camera company that has diversified into other home security and surveillance products. Amazon acquired Ring in 2018. Over the past couple of months, Ring has been facing scrutiny and criticism for privacy issues, hacks, breaches, and so on. There were instances where Ring compromised the owner's video feeds.

A report by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) reveals that Ring is packed with third-party trackers. It says that Ring isn't a product for surveying neighbors, but also surveillance on the customers.

The investigative report discovered that the Ring app for Android has found main analytics and marketing companies, including Facebook and Google. These companies have been receiving sensitive data like private IP addresses, mobile network carriers, sensor data on the devices, and more.

Multiple Cases Of Ring Data Leaks

"Not only does Ring mismanage consumer data, but it also intentionally hands over that data to trackers and data miners," the EFF report says. Previously, Bitdefender security researchers discovered that Ring was exposing Wi-Fi network credentials. It allowed nearby users to intercept the Wi-Fi network and in turn harvest data and compromise the household network.

Back then, Ring had claimed that it had limited the amount of data shared with third-parties. Like most companies, Ring also relies on third-party service providers for its mobile app. Ring said in a statement that it helps to "improve features, optimize the customer experience and evaluate the effectiveness of our marketing," in defense against the privacy of user data.