Amazon continues to peddle a “spy camera” embedded in a clothes hook despite the e-retailer facing a lawsuit over the gadgets after they were allegedly used to secretly ogle an underage Brazilian girl.
The motion sensor-activated “nanny cam” was used by Darrel Wells of West Virginia to spy on the foreign exchange student and aspiring actress he was hosting two years ago, according to a complaint filed this year.
The lawsuit accuses the product’s manufacturers of creating “a spy camera consisting of a mountable hook with an embedded pinhole camera” which enables users to “secretly record audio and video of individuals without their knowledge or consent.”
Amazon is also named in the lawsuit for facilitating the sale of the product, which is marketed as one that “won’t attract attention” from the person being spied on.
Wells is alleged to have installed the camera “for the criminal purpose of recording her while undressed,” according to the language of the complaint.
West Virginia District Court Judge Robert Chambers allowed the case to proceed last week.
The alleged victim is seeking unspecified damages from Wells. A start date for the trial has not been set.
The Post has sought comment from Amazon and Wells.
Earlier this year, a former employee of Amazon-owned Ring was accused in court of spying on female customers in 2017 with cameras placed in bedrooms and bathrooms.
The Federal Trade Commission said Ring gave employees unrestricted access to customers’ sensitive video data. The case was settled for $5.8 million.
“As a result of this dangerously overbroad access and lax attitude toward privacy and security, employees and third-party contractors were able to view, download, and transfer customers’ sensitive video data,” according to the FTC.
Amazon also agreed to pay $25 million to settle allegations it violated children’s privacy rights when it failed to delete Alexa recordings at the request of parents and kept them longer than necessary, according to a filing in Seattle federal court that outlined a separate settlement.
Amazon, which purchased Ring in April 2018, pledged to make some changes in its practices.
“While we disagree with the FTC’s claims regarding both Alexa and Ring, and deny violating the law, these settlements put these matters behind us,” Amazon said in a statement.
With Post Wires
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
