SECURITY NEWS – We bring gadgets into our homes because they help us, inform us, and entertain us. Sometimes, however, they do more than that: They watch us. Any gadget with a camera and a WiFi or Bluetooth connection has the potential to be sending pictures and videos out to the Internet. If gadget companies have done security well, this shouldn’t be a problem, and no one else will be able to see what goes on inside your home. All too often, however, these companies are lax when it comes to security, and customer’s privacy is compromised. Here are a couple of recent examples to be aware of.
Anker sells the Eufy line of home security cameras and doorbells, and they claimed that all video data is kept locally. A security researcher recently verified that videos were going to the cloud and were visible even when the user tried to delete them. When confronted with the research, Anker tried to explain the problem away, rather than admitting that they had been caught lying. What’s the lesson learned? When a connected gadget takes a photo or video, you no longer control that content. You don’t know where it is.
Images taken by a Roomba vacuum were leaked online, including a woman on a toilet and some young children. The subjects had agreed to the data collection, and it was for the purpose of improving iRobot’s data annotation. The data was sent outside of the US, where workers not only reviewed the data but leaked it online to social media. What’s the lesson learned? When a connected gadget takes a photo or video of you, you can’t control who will see it. The more compromising it is, the more likely an unscrupulous insider is to abuse their position of trust and share it.
What are we to do as gadget users? One, be careful what brands you buy from. This is not the first time that Eufy has had a security problem, so you should decide whether or not you will trust brands like this. Two, be careful what you let a camera take pictures of. Never do anything in front of a gadget that you wouldn’t want the entire world to see. Three, cover up the cameras when they are not in use. They can’t share what they can’t see.
UPDATE (Feb 2, 2023): Anker has finally admitted that they have been lying about the security of the Eufy cameras.
