Smart Home Locks Out Owner After Racism Accusation

Amazon confirmed Wednesday that it locked out a man from his smart home after one of its truck drivers accused him of making a racist remark via his smart doorbell.

Brandon Jackson, a Baltimore, Maryland resident, shared his experience on Medium.

Jackson said he regained access to his home on May 31st after being locked out for nearly a week.

From Medium:

The sequence of events that led to this digital exile began innocuously enough. A package was delivered to my house on Wednesday, May 24, and everything seemed fine. The following day, however, I found that my Echo Show had signed out, and I was unable to interact with my smart home devices. My initial assumption was that someone might have attempted to access my account repeatedly, triggering a lockout. I use a fairly old email address for my Amazon account, and it’s plausible that an old password might have been exposed in a past data breach. However, I currently use strong, auto-generated passwords via Apple and employ two-factor authentication with an authenticator app, so unauthorized access seemed unlikely.

I swiftly checked my other accounts (social media, streaming apps, etc.) to ensure I hadn’t been compromised. All seemed normal, with no flood of notifications from Microsoft Authenticator that would indicate an attempted breach. Puzzled, I followed the advice of the Amazon app and dialed the customer service number it provided. That’s when things began to take a surreal turn.

Jackson then said that “the driver who had delivered my package reported receiving racist remarks from my ‘Ring doorbell.'”

He shared his story with Louis Rossmann to describe the details of his experience.

Rossmann posted a YouTube video titled “Amazon accuses customer of racism & shuts down their smart home” Monday.

WATCH:

The Daily Caller contacted Amazon to find out if the allegations were accurate.

Amazon confirms it shut down man’s smart home after delivery driver wrongly accused him of making racist remark https://t.co/EmMEs4u1WQ

— TheBlaze (@theblaze) June 14, 2023

https://twitter.com/Parineca/status/1669005125656903680

Per Daily Caller:

The Daily Caller contacted Amazon to confirm the veracity of Rossmann and his viewer’s claims. The company was asked whether the content of the video is accurate, if the company restricts the use of purchased products based on uninvestigated claims and whether they have a solution if any of this is true.

“We work hard to provide customers with a great experience while also ensuring drivers who deliver Amazon packages feel safe. In this case, we learned through our investigation that the customer did not act inappropriately, and we’re working directly with the customer to resolve their concerns while also looking at ways to prevent a similar situation from happening again,” Amazon spokesperson Simone Griffin told the Daily Caller in a statement.

Amazon did not immediately respond to follow-up questions.

We’ve heard prior stories of individuals getting locked out of their social media or bank accounts for ‘hate speech’ or having the ‘wrong’ political views.

However, ‘smart’ technology could enable tyrannical governments and corporations to lock you out of your home for ‘wrongthink.’

Very scary stuff if we don’t stand up to it now!