Anker Admits Eufy Cameras Did Not Offer End-to-End Encryption as Promised, Pledges to Do Better

[russell_314]

HKSV doesn’t allow continuous recording regardless of powered or battery camera. It only records events as clips.

That's terrible. A camera that's continuously recording will never fail to catch something, but if it's dependent on some motion detection that is dependent on that working or not. I guess cloud video storage costs money and it's not practical for Apple to maintain that. I have a cheap $20 Walmart camera that has an SD card. It continuously records so I can access whatever time from the cloud

 

[Larsvonhier]

...

But what Anker did, through either malice or incompetence, should pretty much rule them out for anything other than charges and cables (which are pretty great, TBH).

What a nice "Freudian" typo! ;-)
I fully agree, let the charges (of law enforcement, lost lawsuits, EU and US trade commission committees, ...) roll over them. Case closed then. Next startup waiting to do a better job.

 

[MrCubes]

I don’t understand why more people don’t use it. I’ve been looking for a indoor camera with it and there doesn’t seem to be many good choices.

I think you answered your own question!

 

[Frankfurt]

I own four Eufy cameras - for outdoor security purposes only. I would not trust any company with indoor usage, no matter what they promise.

 

[scottlitch]

I don’t understand why more people don’t use it. I’ve been looking for an indoor camera with it and there doesn’t seem to be many good choices.

Logi Circle View and Ecobee Smart Camera are good options.

 

[jarman92]

Annoyingly it doesn't work with their 4K cameras which I upgraded to, would be nice for Apple to allow camera resolutions over 1080p for a start. HomeKit works very well but it's lagging behind 3rd party apps in terms of features.

Annoying, indeed. Also doesn't allow you to move the camera for some reason.

 

[jarman92]

It’s apples fault for having arbitrary hardware requirements that makes it impossible for many products to comply even when the maker would want to. For example the netatmo doorbell won’t be compatible because the hardware simply can’t cope with a high res high framerate (nor it should have to… it’s a doorbell!).

This situation is Exhibit A for why Apple's hardware requirements are not arbitrary.

 

[supremedesigner]

Once the company is admitted its mistakes, it's too late. They could've done the right way but they didn't. It will go down. The damage is done.

 

[macphreak2011]

just curious - what cameras does everyone recommend? Nest cams are too expensive. But, looking for something like Eufy to replace them with (with a good quality app)

 

[Pezimak]

just curious - what cameras does everyone recommend? Nest cams are too expensive. But, looking for something like Eufy to replace them with (with a good quality app)

Blink if you want to do it cheap?

 

[ss2cire]

Isn't this paramount to false advertisement? They said they have feature X (or implemented it in a software/firmware update) and didn't actually deliver it. As others have said, if this were Apple, there'd be a class action lawsuit almost immediately.

 

[Eggtastic]

Off topic but anyone have a wired reolink system?

 

[Pezimak]

There's a couple of differences. Most notably, Siri isn't 24-hour surveillance. Most of the time, it's an actual command given to Siri. The chance that an unintentional activation contains something sensitive is way lower than a stranger being able to wait for something sensitive. And then, it's accessible to employees of some company, which presumably doesn't make it easy for employees to keep or share these recordings, let alone simply posting a link for everyone to "enjoy". And finally, video is not audio. A few seconds of an audio recording of you having sex cannot do remotely as much harm as a long video of the same act.

But most of all, Apple never promised that Siri was local, never implemented a fake privacy switch that didn't work, nor incompetently failed to protect your data from the entire internet.

What Apple did was bad. They should have been transparent about the manual data processing. And even though other companies certainly do the same, they deserve all the negativity they got, because they're being held to a high standard, as they should given their privacy-focused marketing.

But what Anker did, through either malice or incompetence, should pretty much rule them out for anything other than charges and cables (which are pretty great, TBH).

The main outcry for Apple though was Siri listening to and recording conversations when people didn’t know it was activated, hence difficult discussions or actions being recorded. Which could happen at anytime. Apple also never once told its customers third party companies would listen to your recordings. If I recall it was criticising Amazon and others for doing that though. Hence my comparisons which you also proved for me, Apple isn’t criticised anywhere near as much as any other company is.
Doesn’t matter as I won’t stop using Eufy, it’s great and works well snd offers complete local storage.

 

[GabooN]

That's terrible. A camera that's continuously recording will never fail to catch something, but if it's dependent on some motion detection that is dependent on that working or not. I guess cloud video storage costs money and it's not frypractical for Apple to maintain that. I have a cheap $20 Walmart camera that has anSD card. It continuously records so I can access whatever time from the cloud

Yes but I think in HKSV case, there is constant ‘video’ but not constant recording. Meaning when the triggers like person, pet, vehicle, package - are sensed in the video feed then it records a clip. As opposed to a literal motion sensor waiting to turn on a video feed. There are still times though that the algorithm doesn’t seem to capture the start of something. Like today I had a package delivered. Van parked on the road outside of the boundary I set (don’t need a clip of every car driving by) but he was halfway up the driveway before the start of the recorded clip. Not a huge deal in this case but if there was an event where every frame mattered, you might be missing something.

 

[russell_314]

Like today I had a package delivered. Van parked on the road outside of the boundary I set (don’t need a clip of every car driving by) but he was halfway up the driveway before the start of the recorded clip. Not a huge deal in this case but if there was an event where every frame mattered, you might be missing something.

That's my big issue with cameras that don't constantly record. Sure the camera may be on it it's not saving video so if I want to go back to Tuesday at 8 PM and see what happen by my door I can't do that I know someone that has Arlo cameras. Even though they're not Homekit they will sometimes not record stuff just like you explained with the package delivery. I don't need it to notify me but I want to be able to go back and look.

 

[russell_314]

Logi Circle View and Ecobee Smart Camera are good options.

Will those save recordings to an SD card or somewhere or do they only save when activated by motion? I want something that saves everything.

 

[Mac Fly (film)]

Ankers

 

[trainwrecka]

Hmm were people on here so unforgiving when it was discovered, thanks to a British newspaper and a whistle blower, Apple contracted a third party company to listen to all your Siri interactions, and that Siri recoded you having sex or conversations you didn’t want others to hear without your knowledge?

Seems the same to me here, glad Anker have fixed the issue but as they said it affected such a small user base as most users don’t use their online subscription service.

Wait… what??? I missed this.

 

[dysamoria]

Corporate pledges to “do better” are pathetic. Yeah, we’ll trust them now, sure sure… whatever. Corporations are just ridiculous. There needs to be some kind of consequence for this endless behavior, but nope, nothing. Never any accountability.

Why the hell would anyone ever trust a thing they say after being revealed to be lying once?

It should be part of our cultural norm to recognize that corporations are lying at all times, until and unless they’re legally compelled to show something resembling accountability. It seems to still be some kind of norm that we will believe marketing and trust in “professionalism”, and then, after they are found lying, we give them infinite more chances to do the same thing again.

Anyone remember that definition of insanity wherein you expect different outcomes from the same exact repeated action..?

 

[dysamoria]

True. But now they’ve admitted it they could face big fines. Especially in Australia we have the ACCC which do not take lightly to companies misleading customers.

Good.

 

[scottlitch]

Will those save recordings to an SD card or somewhere or do they only save when activated by motion? I want something that saves everything.

They save to iCloud when Motion is detected. I don’t know of any that record continuously.

 

[SteveJawbs]

Blink if you want to do it cheap?

I bought a Blink to test since my 7 year old Arlo pros are being EOL’d and people are pist.

Blinks are horrific. All the reviews in the App Store are true.

Arlo is screwing millions of users. It’s sad. Their product is awesome. My Arlo Pros are still going strong. Perfect.

Here is the master EOL thread - fun reading.

End Of Life Policy

I have just received an email about the End Of Life policy. If this is actually what is going to happen then I need to follow up with all my friends and family, social media connections to advocate against Arlo, and search for an alternative company and service, likely starting my own online...

community.arlo.com

 

[_Spinn_]

This is why I stick with HKSV.

 

[Scoob Redux]

That’s obviously incorrect. If they claim something about their product and it’s knowingly incorrect, then it’s false advertising.

You don’t have to wait for a car accident to sue a manufacturer for selling you a car with fake brakes.

The law is a bit more complex than that. You have to have "standing" to bring a suit. A state Attorney General can bring a suit for "false advertising", for instance, because the AG has legal standing to do so. If a consumer wants to bring a suit for "false advertising", that person would need to show damages in order to have standing. In other words, if your local car dealer is falsely advertising vehicle pricing (which they do all the time), it's not enough to go to the court and say "They're liars"...the court would say "Who are you, and why does it matter to you?" If you don't have standing, the court doesn't care, and your case will be thrown out.
In your example of fake brakes, yes, you could sue because you bought a car with the expectation that the brakes worked. However, the limit of your damages would be to get working brakes installed or a refund. You can't sue for what might have happened.

 

[Scoob Redux]

just curious - what cameras does everyone recommend? Nest cams are too expensive. But, looking for something like Eufy to replace them with (with a good quality app)

My Eufys have been great. App works perfectly. The always stay connected and have never lost wifi connection. The human detection is not 100%, but probably 95%. I went with them to avoid all the other cameras that require cloud storage with monthly fees. I take them down about once every 10 months to recharge them (they advertise 12 months, but I get deliveries every day, so they record a lot of humans!)