CNN —

Amazon has agreed to pay more than $30 million to settle two federal lawsuits alleging that the tech giant violated users' privacy — including that of children — through its Alexa voice assistant and its Ring doorbell cameras.

Video above: Alexa’s celebrity voices are being discontinued

The twin settlements Wednesday with the Federal Trade Commission highlight claims that Amazon retained Ring videos and Alexa voice recordings, along with related geolocation information, for years – in some cases without consent and despite requests by consumers for the data to be deleted.

In addition, the FTC alleged that lax data policies at Amazon meant that the information could often be accessed by unauthorized parties — and often was, in the case of Ring doorbell footage.

Amazon acquired Ring in 2018, paving the way for the e-commerce giant to get into the home security business. In addition to video doorbells, Ring makes indoor and outdoor security cameras as well as alarm systems.

In a complaint accompanying the settlement, the FTC claimed Ring gave employees unrestricted access to videos from customers' home security systems. In one instance, the complaint states, a Ring employee viewed thousands of video recordings from at least 81 female users between June and August 2017, viewing cameras that users had assigned to bathrooms and bedrooms. An initial misconduct report by a fellow employee was not taken seriously, the complaint said.

"Only after the supervisor noticed that the male employee was only viewing videos of 'pretty girls' did the supervisor escalate the report of misconduct," the FTC alleged in the complaint. "Only at that point did Ring review a portion of the employee's activity and, ultimately, terminate his employment."

The complaint against Ring also recounts numerous alleged instances of hacked cameras allowing malicious actors to speak to victims, causing distress. Many of these attacks allegedly occurred through successful guessing of user passwords, reflecting failures by Amazon to require strong password protections, according to the complaint.

"Between January 2019 and March 2020, more than 55,000 U.S. customers suffered from credential stuffing and brute force attacks that compromised Ring devices," the FTC alleged. "Through these attacks, bad actors gained access to hundreds of thousands of videos of the personal spaces of consumers' homes, including their bedrooms and their children's bedrooms—recorded by devices that Ring sold by claiming that they would increase consumers' security."

As part of the proposed settlement, Ring has agreed to pay $5.8 million and implement a new data security program, according to the filing.

"Ring promptly addressed these issues on its own years ago, well before the FTC began its inquiry," Ring said in a statement provided to CNN. "While we disagree with the FTC's allegations and deny violating the law, this settlement resolves this matter so we can focus on innovating on behalf of our customers."

Separately, Amazon will pay $25 million to settle the allegations surrounding its Alexa voice assistant.

In a complaint, the FTC alleged that Amazon violated a children's privacy law known as COPPA, which restricts the collection of personal information from children under 13 without a parent's consent.

According to the FTC, Amazon kept Alexa voice recordings of children "indefinitely" unless a user specifically instructed the company to delete the recordings. It also allegedly sometimes failed to honor the deletion requests "and instead retained that data for its own potential use."

The proposed Alexa settlement requires Amazon to delete voice recordings and geolocation data in accordance with past consumer requests, including that of children. The company will also be barred from using that data to train its algorithms, the FTC said. Amazon also agreed to send consumers notices about the FTC settlement, and to implement a privacy program for geolocation data.

Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Alexa settlement.

MORTON GROVE, IL — High-tech contactless shopping is now a reality in more places.

Amazon, which is pushing deeper into the grocery store business, has eliminated check-out lines with a handful of stores offering the cashier-less experience. The stores don't even require you to scan your items as you select them off the shelf, a model that could become the future of all smart shopping.

With a quick QR code scan, you’re checked in.

“A lot of the feedback we get is I feel like, 'I'm shoplifting. I'm stealing,'” said Carl Andersen, a store manager at Amazon Fresh in Morton Grove, Illinois.

The company had already used "Amazon Dash Carts" to record purchases. But this is different.

Look up at the ceiling and you’ll see a trellis of cameras. Numbering in the hundreds, they are covering every square inch of the store.

“The cameras pick up what item was placed and scanned and given to you,” explained Andersen.

Coupled with computer vision, sensor fusion, and deep learning, the technology automatically detects when products are taken from or returned to the shelves.

Whatever you leave with is charged to your credit card that is linked to your Amazon account when you scan out.

“You don't walk out of with a receipt directly, but you'll get a receipt within just a few hours of leaving the store,” said Andersen.

Instead of paper cards, produce prices are centrally updated and displayed electronically on mini-screens similar to a Kindle reader.

“They'll display the item itself, how much it is, if it's on sale and it also has a star rating on there just to show you, ‘Hey, this item has been reviewed 20,000 times on Amazon,” said Andersen.

There are a handful of Alexa stations where you can find out anything you need to know about where things are, recipe suggestions or what’s on sale that week.

Since September of 2020, the tech giant has opened 23 specialty Amazon Fresh grocery locations around the country. A half dozen stores are now using the “Just Walk Out technology” in California, Illinois, Washington state and Washington, D.C.

And it’s looking like this could be the future of in-store shopping.

One study found that the value of transactions processed by smart checkout technologies will reach $387 billion in 2025.

There are still employees in the store, stocking shelves, making fresh sushi, and preparing home deliveries. Cashiers are on hand in case you’re unnerved by all the cameras and want to shop without being tracked.

“We'll have the people that are a little nervous at the beginning to use it,” said Andersen. “So, the first time they come in, they might want to choose to do traditional shopping, or they might want to talk to the cashiers as they're walking out of the door.”

But the company says it encourages shoppers to use the technology, so they don’t have to wait in line or ever open their wallets.

“There's no line. There's no wait,” said Andersen. “You're truly just getting a quick shopping experience and you can make it as long or as quick as you want.”

Driven in part by the pandemic, the automated technology is already making its way to other retailers. Amazon says the “Just Walk Out technology” is now being used in retail, hospitality, and stadium settings with more to come.