Anyone who brings a security camera into their home needs one thing above all else: trust in the provider’s cloud. Customers of Wyze (official website) may have slowly lost this. Users were shown camera footage from other users without further ado.
Wyze users are shocked
More and more manufacturers are offering their security cameras with a matching cloud. The advantage is obvious. With the right app, users can access live footage from their own four walls anytime and anywhere. However, there is of course also a security risk here, which the cloud and software operator must always bear in mind. Wyze appears to provide inadequate protection for camera recordings.
The US manufacturer of security equipment for private users has now had to admit that the proud number of 13,000 users were unceremoniously shown a preview image of a third-party camera on February 16, 2024. Of course, there were also some curious people among the large number who clicked on the preview. As a result, a total of 1,504 users gained access to the live recording of a Wyze camera. Now the users of the service are understandably not only annoyed, but also shocked. And quite rightly so. After all, many users now fear for their privacy.
Software problem from third-party provider
After becoming aware of the problem, the company worked to find a solution as quickly as possible and immediately informed the owners of the affected camera. A cause was also quickly found. The software from another service provider is said to be to blame for the problem. Wyze had probably only recently embedded this in its own application. However, the third-party software cannot be solely blamed. This conclusion can at least be drawn from a description of the incident by Wyze itself. On the morning of February 16, the company’s own cloud failed.
- Looking for an alternative to Wyze? Reolink Argus 3 Ultra test: surveillance camera with a strong image
After the company helped it back on its feet, the cloud was confronted with unexpected demand, which brought it to its knees again without further ado. This time, however, the cloud did not fail. Instead, it made mistakes and incorrectly linked the IDs of users and devices. Ultimately, this meant that the wrong camera was simply assigned to the large number of people. In view of this incident, it is doubtful whether the company can still survive in the already competitive market for home Wi-Fi cameras.
