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Shop NowRing doorbell cameras have become wildly popular as security has become a major issue for the American people. But there is more than just physical security we must contemplate as wireless camera’s become the rage in private security.
Ring doorbells are now in hot water after Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz recently claimed they pose a privacy risk based on data from the Federal Trade Commission.
The FTC expressed its concerns about Ring in a complaint that was submitted on May 31. The FTC issued an order to resolve those concerns.
Gaetz tweeted a video clip of the FTC Chair Lina Khan’s presentation before Congress on Thursday about the issues Ring Doorbells could cause.
“DID YOU KNOW??? Perverts at @Ring are: •sexually propositioning grandmas •watching you sleep •watching you use the bathroom •unable to stop hackers from threatening you and your children,” Gaetz captioned the tweet that shared Khan’s presentation.
DID YOU KNOW???
Perverts at @Ring are:
•sexually propositioning grandmas
•watching you sleep
•watching you use the bathroom
•unable to stop hackers from threatening you and your children🤯🤯🤯 pic.twitter.com/lr4Mo7aIMN
— Rep. Matt Gaetz (@RepMattGaetz) July 13, 2023
In the video, Gaetz clearly states that “Millions of Americans have Ring doorbell cameras, and your agency recently put out a correspondence saying, ‘During a three-month period in 2017, a Ring employee viewed thousands of videos of female users in their bedrooms and bathrooms including videos of Ring’s own employees.”
“There was also at Ring, according to the FTC, an unauthorized tunnel that allowed a Ukraine-based contractor to access consumer videos,” he said, also citing “an incident where a Ring employee gave information about a customer to their ex-husband.” Gaetz continued.
.@RepMattGaetz Presses FTC Chair On Ring Doorbell's Alarming Activity
GAETZ: "Bad actors at Ring took advantage of the camera's two-way communication functionality to harass and threaten people:
1. An 87-year-old woman…was sexually propositioned
2. Kids were subject to racial… pic.twitter.com/9ZS1NSrNXL— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) July 13, 2023
Gatez continued by citing the FTC documents that said “bad actors took advantage of the camera’s two-way communication functionality to harass and threaten people who used Ring cameras. There was a case where an 87-year-old woman in an assisted living facility was sexually propositioned through Ring’s two-way features. Kids were subject to racial slurs.”
Khan replied that the FTC had taken action, but what that action was wasn’t completely clear.
“I thought that when people got Ring, it was to enhance their personal security, not to have their 87-year-old relative in an ALF sexually propositioned, their children to be slurred at, and then to be told that they were going to be killed if they didn’t pay Bitcoin ransom,” Gaetz explained.
Ring Doorbell Recording Americans pic.twitter.com/cxYgsv5oBn
— TheConservative (@Matt_sleepyduck) July 16, 2023
The FTC lawsuit filed against Ring states that “between June and August 2017, a Ring employee saw hundreds of video clips belonging to at least 81 unique female users of Ring Stick Up Cams, including Ring customers and Ring employees. The worker concentrated his voyeuristic searches on cameras whose titles suggested they were monitoring a private area, such as “Master Bedroom,” “Master Bathroom,” or “Spy Cam.”
“On hundreds of occasions during this three-month period, the employee perused female customers’ and employees’ videos, often for an hour or more each day. Undetected by Ring, the employee continued spying for months,” the complaint read.
