{"id":20605,"date":"2022-12-02T19:03:53","date_gmt":"2022-12-02T19:03:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2022\/12\/02\/why-review-geek-cant-recommend-wyze-or-eufy-cameras-anymore-review-geek\/"},"modified":"2022-12-02T19:03:53","modified_gmt":"2022-12-02T19:03:53","slug":"why-review-geek-cant-recommend-wyze-or-eufy-cameras-anymore-review-geek","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2022\/12\/02\/why-review-geek-cant-recommend-wyze-or-eufy-cameras-anymore-review-geek\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Review Geek Can\u2019t Recommend Wyze or eufy Cameras Anymore \u2013 Review Geek"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\"A
Wyze\/eufy<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It’s not about vulnerabilities but what the companies did next.<\/p>\n

When it comes to either affordable Wi-Fi cameras or cloudless Wi-Fi cameras, Review Geek has long recommended two companies: Wyze and eufy. We\u2019ve reviewed products from both companies highly and included them in our \u201cbest of\u201d lists multiple times. But as of today, we can no longer recommend either.<\/p>\n

Wi-Fi cameras are, at the base of things, a device that requires a great deal of trust. You\u2019re putting a gadget into your home that can see some of the most personal and private areas of your life and potentially broadcast it to the world. Even if you keep them in the more \u201cpublic\u201d areas of your home, like the living room or kitchen, that\u2019s still a far more personal look than most people get in your life.<\/p>\n

So before you buy a camera, it\u2019s good to know that the company practices good security procedures and proper disclosures. The latter is especially important because even with the best security procedures, no company is perfect, and it\u2019s likely every one of them will suffer from some kind of vulnerability sooner or later.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s down bad disclosure that we at Review Geek are removing both Wyze and eufy cameras from our recommendations. Each had a vulnerability, and both failed to responsibly disclose those issues to the public, albeit in different ways.<\/p>\n

Wyze Hid Its Small Problem<\/h2>\n
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Wyze<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We\u2019ve reported extensively<\/a> on the problem with Wyze, but here\u2019s a recap in a nutshell. Wyze\u2019s vulnerability is actually a pretty small one that likely didn\u2019t hit most people. The problem comes down to two particular key points, one of them more rare than the other. Wyze cameras have a remote viewing capability that allows you to check video even when you\u2019re not home. For most people that feature just works if they enable it.<\/p>\n

But in some rare cases, a home router may actually block Wyze from reaching out to allow remote viewing. To get around that, it\u2019s possible to enable port forwarding in your home router to create a \u201ctunnel\u201d so Wyze could reach you when you weren\u2019t home. Wyze offered instructions on how to do that, but admitted it could decrease your internet security.<\/p>\n

The vulnerability in question required that you both enabled port forwarding AND had a microSD card inserted in the camera to record video locally. The latter is pretty common, but the first not so much. Few people probably had both components. But for those who did, it was possible for someone to break into your camera and watch any video on the SD card. Again, this probably didn\u2019t apply to most Wyze camera owners, but that\u2019s still a bad vulnerability.<\/p>\n

\"The
Michael Crider \/ Review Geek<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In 2019, security researchers for BitDefender<\/a> notified Wyze of the vulnerability, and here\u2019s where things get really bad. Wyze sat on that information for three years. Eventually, Wyze did patch most of its cameras to fix the problem, but apparently, the company couldn\u2019t do that for the original Wyze Cam.<\/p>\n

Rather than tell owners that, though, the company decided to discontinue selling the camera (yes, it sold the camera through most of this period), and announce that it would no longer get updates<\/a>. And because of that fact, Wyze recommended anyone that owned the original camera upgrade and offered a small discount to do so.<\/p>\n

Do you see the problem? Wyze didn\u2019t tell people who owned the camera that a vulnerability existed that could allow hackers to view their videos. It just recommended an upgrade because the camera is \u201cno longer supported.\u201d That\u2019s not how to handle this situation. Only after the security researchers finally blew the whistle did Wyze admit to the problem.<\/p>\n

That is a breach of trust. How can we be sure that the next time Wyze encounters a vulnerability, it will actually admit the problem so consumers can make an informed choice? For that reason alone, we can\u2019t recommend Wyze cameras anymore. We\u2019ll still recommend other products from the company that aren\u2019t cameras, like robot vacuums. But we\u2019ll be watching closely and could change that if necessary.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve been looking for a good Wyze replacement\u2014something affordable, trusted, and preferably with an option to skip the cloud. And eufy fit the bill. Unfortunately, eufy went down a similar, perhaps worse, road.<\/p>\n

eufy Won\u2019t Even Admit to a Big Vulnerability<\/h2>\n
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Josh Hendrickson \/ Review Geek<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the last few days, eufy has been through the wringer<\/a>. Security researchers have made multiple accusations, some minor and some major. The first thing you need to know about eufy is that it promises your video will never end up on the cloud. Eufy doesn\u2019t even offer a cloud subscription at all. The company claims all your video is stored locally on your camera, using military-grade encryption, and that only you can access the video using eufy\u2019s app or web interface. No other method will work, nor can eufy access your video. That makes it ideal for the security conscious.<\/p>\n

The first claim against eufy is pretty minor in comparison. Despite the claim that no video gets uploaded to servers, it appeared some snippets did end on servers and in unencrypted form. Those are in the form of thumbnails in an optional feature of the eufy app. You can choose to get image notifications when someone rings a doorbell, for instance, to see who is at the door in the notification panel.<\/p>\n

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