Your Amazon Cloud Cam Footage Might Not Be As Private As You Thought

In the recent months, several startling privacy revelations were made, where it was found that various companies like Apple, Google, Facebook, and Microsoft were using third-party human contractors to review audio recordings made on devices. There have also been instances where some of these recordings were made unintentionally, making it an even worse privacy violation.

This is why it doesn’t exactly come as a huge surprise to learn that Amazon could be doing the same thing. This is according to a report from Bloomberg in which they discovered that Amazon has been allowing humans to watch and review Cloud Cam security footage, apparently under the guise of improving the AI system that it uses to recognize objects in the frame.

The report claims that Amazon dozens of employees in India and Romania were tasked with reviewing the footage from Cloud Cam, in which they are expected to mark footage by either saying it is a threat or false alarm. In response to the report, Amazon has defended their review process, stating that the videos submitted are from employee testers or Cloud Cam owners who voluntarily submit them for troubleshooting purposes.

A spokeswoman clarified that only videos submitted for troubleshooting are reviewed, but otherwise, all footage can only be viewed by their owners.

Tyler Lee
Categories: General
Tags: Amazon, Connected Objects, IoT (Internet of Things), Privacy, Security