Ring and its parent company, Amazon, have been sued in California’s federal court.
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The companies are being sued for allegedly failing to secure the privacy and security of users of Ring, the manufacturer of “alarms, video doorbells, security systems, and cameras,” as the suit states. The lawsuit says Ring did not achieve the “most basic obligation by not ensuring its Wi-Fi enabled cameras were protected against cyber-attack.” The lawsuit also says that the two entities tried to avoid accountability by putting the blame on users themselves.
Plaintiff John Baker Orange, resident of Jefferson County in Alabama, filed the class action lawsuit in the Central District of California on behalf of himself and potentially “hundreds of putative class members. At least one of the members of the putative class is a citizen of a different state than Defendants.”
The lawsuit continues with severely critical language, “Ring promises its customers ‘peace of mind’ with its Wi-Fi enabled smart security systems. Unfortunately, Ring’s cameras fail to deliver on its most basic promise. Lax security standards and protocols render its camera systems vulnerable to cyber-attack. Indeed, over the past several months numerous Ring customers reported that their camera systems had been hacked by malicious third parties who gained access to the video and two-way speaker-microphone system which they used to invade the privacy of customers’ homes and terrorize unsuspecting occupants, many of whom are children.”
Orange’s purchase and cause for concern is detailed furthermore in the suit, “Mr. Orange purchased the Ring camera to provide additional security for him and his family which include his wife and three children aged 7, 9, and 10. Recently, Mr. Orange’s children were playing basketball when a voice came on through the camera’s two-way speaker system. An unknown person engaged with Mr. Orange’s children commenting on their basketball play and encouraging them to get closer to the camera. Once Mr. Orange learned of the incident, he changed the password on the Ring camera and enabled two-factor authentication. Prior to changing his password, Mr. Orange protected his Ring camera with a medium-strong password. Prior to the recent hacking incidents, Mr. Orange was unaware of and believes that Ring did not provide users the ability to secure their systems with two-factor authentication.”
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