Amazon Ring's Neighbors app leaked users' data: Report

San Francisco, January 15

In fresh trouble for Amazon-owned home security subsidiary Ring, a new bug in its Neighbors app has exposed precise locations and home addresses of users who used the app.

TechCrunch reported that the bug made it possible to retrieve the location data on users who posted to the app, "including those who are reporting crimes".

The Neighbors app had about 4 million posts by the end of 2020.

The video doorbell and home security startup said that it has fixed the issue.

"At Ring, we take customer privacy and security extremely seriously. We fixed this issue soon after we became aware of it. We have not identified any evidence of this information being accessed or used maliciously," Ring spokesperson Yassi Shahmiri was quoted as saying.

Ring, acquired by Amazon for $1 billion, launched Neighbors app in 2018. It lets users anonymously alert nearby residents to crime and public-safety issues.

According to the report published on Thursday, the exposed data wasn't visible to anyone using the app.

"Rather, the bug was retrieving hidden data, including the user's latitude and longitude and their home address, from Ring's servers".

Gizmodo last year found a similar vulnerability in the Neighbors app that revealed hidden location data.

Ring is facing a class-action suit in the US by people who say they were subjected to death threats and racial slurs after their Ring smart cameras were hacked.

The lawsuit, filed in the US District Court for the Central District of California, said that Ring security cameras have been hacked several times in the US, including the shocking episode where parents of an eight-year-old girl were left stunned when a hacker accessed a camera installed in their daughter's room and taunted her. — IANS

Join Whatsapp Channel of The Tribune for latest updates.