Ring home security customers will get refunds over security-lapse claims

The Biden administration is sending out $5.6 million in refund payments to certain Ring home security system customers after the company settled a federal complaint accusing it of security lapses.

In a statement this week, the Federal Trade Commission said it would be sending out 117,044 payments via PayPal to affected customers as compensation for claims that Ring allowed employees and contractors to access consumers’ private videos. The agency accused Ring in 2023 of failing to implement proper security protections, enabling hackers to take control of consumer accounts, cameras and videos.

In a statement sent to The Associated Press, Ring, which was purchased by Amazon in 2018, said that bad actors took emails and passwords that were “stolen from other companies to unlawfully log into Ring accounts of certain customers.’

It said it promptly addressed the situation by notifying any customer “exposed in a third-party, non-Ring incident” and taking action to protect impacted accounts.

Many of the violations alleged by the FTC predate Amazon’s acquisition.

Ring did not immediately address the FTC’s allegations of employees and contractors unlawfully accessing footage, The Associated Press said. Amazon has previously said it disagreed with the FTC’s claims but that it was eager to “put these matters behind us.”

The FTC said customers who have not already been contacted about a refund or who have questions about their payments should contact the refund administrator, Rust Consulting, Inc., at  1-833-637-4884, or visit the FTC website to view frequently asked questions about the refund process.