Amazon Again in the Spotlight for Privacy Issues Related to AI Data-Gathering

to train AI algorithms to distinguish between real threats and false alarms. It said at one point, on a typical day, some Amazon auditors were each annotating about 150 video recordings, which were typically 20 to 30 seconds long. Snippets for review came from employee tests and from Cloud Cam owners who submit clips to troubleshoot issues such as inaccurate notifications and video quality. Bloomberg said Amazon’s Cloud Cam user terms don’t spell out explicitly that human beings are training the algorithms behind the motion detection software and that some clips have included activity “homeowners are unlikely to want shared, including rare instances of people having sex.” Although Amazon has tight security policies -- employees in India aren’t allowed to use their mobile phones -- "that hasn’t stopped other employees from passing footage to non-team members," the article said. An Amazon spokesperson emailed Thursday the company takes privacy seriously and puts Cloud Cam customers “in control of their video clips. Only customers can view their clips, and they can delete them at any time by visiting the Manage My Content and Devices page.” Customers can share a specific clip using the feedback option in the Cloud Cam app to help improve the service, she said. “When a customer chooses to share a clip, it may get annotated and used for supervised learning to improve the accuracy of Cloud Cam’s computer vision systems. For example, supervised learning helps Cloud Cam better distinguish different types of motion so we can provide more accurate alerts to customers.” A FAQ on Amazon’s customer service page detailing who can view Cloud Cam clips, says: “Only you or people you have shared your account information with can view your clips, unless you choose to submit a clip to us directly for troubleshooting. Customers can also choose to share clips via email or social media.”