Amazon Ring customers getting $5.6 million in refunds, FTC says (2024)

FAQs

Amazon Ring customers getting $5.6 million in refunds, FTC says? ›

Amazon Ring customers getting $5.6 million in refunds, FTC says. The Federal Trade Commission is sending more than $5.6 million in refunds to people who purchased Amazon's Ring camera during a time when the devices were potentially being used to violate their privacy.

In some cases, hackers took control of customer accounts, cameras, and videos. The settlement required Ring to pay money, delete videos it shouldn't have, and establish a strong privacy and security program. The FTC is now using that money to provide refunds to eligible Ring customers.

NEW YORK (AP) — The Federal Trade Commission is sending more than $5.6 million in refunds to consumers as part of a settlement with Amazon-owned Ring, which was charged with failing to protect private video footage from outside access.

Ring wasn't the only security tech company associated with these kinds of internal problems. These issues all led to a $5.8 million fine from the FTC, long after Ring had made many changes to its cam-related activities. Now the FTC is distributing $5.6 million of that fine back to users who were affected.

The Federal Trade Commission is sending refunds totaling more than $5.6 million to consumers as the result of a settlement with Ring over charges the company allowed employees and contractors to access consumers' private videos and failed to implement security protections, enabling hackers to take control of consumers' ...

Sending refunds

FTC staff independently reviews each distribution, checks the proposed list of recipients against the master list, and investigates any discrepancies before approving a distribution. The agency also conducts payment audits to verify that only the rightful recipients received payments.

Are you owed a Ring refund? If you used an indoor Ring camera or other product prior to May 2023 and have questions about if you qualify for a refund from the settlement, you can contact the FTC's refund administrator at (833) 637-4884.

Most FTC cases do not require you to file a claim. FTC court orders typically require the defendants to provide a list of customers, along with their contact information, and how much they paid. We use this information to send refunds.

Report a Scam to the FTC

If you experienced a scam — or even spotted one, report it to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov. Check out what's going on in your state or metro area by visiting ftc.gov/exploredata.

The FTC: The Rule requires you to notify the FTC (use the online Notice of Breach of Health Information), but the timing depends on the number of people affected. If the breach involves the information of 500 people or more, you must notify the FTC at the same time you send notices to the people affected.

How to claim Ring settlement? ›

Is there a claim form for the Ring settlement? Unlike a typical class action settlement, there is no Amazon Ring camera settlement claim form. Instead, the FTC notified consumers who are eligible for a refund directly via email, and payments will be sent automatically to those eligible consumers via PayPal.

You can return the engagement ring to the original jewelry shop if you have discussed the return policy. Some jewelry shops accept a full refund for non-personalized engagement rings. It is rare to find a jewelry shop that accepts a full refund.

You have 30 days from the date you received your device(s) to request a full refund with no questions asked. You may have additional rights under applicable law, and our returns policy does not affect such rights.

The refunds to Ring customers, which total to more than $5.6 million, come after a settlement with Ring over charges the Amazon-owned company allowed contractors and employees to access private videos and "failed to implement security protections, enabling hackers to take control of consumers' accounts, cameras and ...

While we disagree with the FTC's allegations and deny violating the law, this settlement resolves this matter so we can focus on innovating on behalf of our customers.”

If you receive bills for supplies you didn't order, don't pay. The law allows you to treat unordered goods as a gift. You don't have to return the merchandise, and you don't have to pay even if someone in your business used the supplies before you realized they were unordered.

It will also never contact consumers to demand money, threaten to arrest or deport them, or promise a prize. If someone claims to work for the FTC and makes any of these demands or threats, they are a scammer.

It must be claimed from PayPal within 30 days. The FTC says to call 1-833-637-4884 if you have a problem with your payment. That number belongs to Rust Consulting Inc., the company responsible for doling out the payments. Needless to say, there are plenty of reasons not to own a Ring camera.

Ring has long sparked controversy about privacy due to its controversial partnerships with hundreds of police departments across the U.S. Privacy advocates have expressed concern that the program, and Ring's accompanying Neighbors app, have heightened the risk of racial profiling and turned residents into informants, ...