Wyze

Wyze

Basic information
Founded	2017
Type	Private
Industry	Technology
Official website	https://wyze.com/

Wyze Cloud Security Camera Breach

Incident

On two separate occasions from September 2023 to February 2024, Wyze personal security cameras were able to be accessed by other owners due to security failures.

In early September 2023, many Wyze security camera users reported being able to see the feeds of cameras that were not their own. A Wyze spokesperson reported this was due to a "web caching issue and is now resolved." Users throughout social media platforms such as Twitter and Reddit reported this issue and within 30 minutes, the camera view portal was shut down.

In late February 2024, after bringing servers back from a company outage, about 13,000 users were able to view thumbnails from another users cameras with about 1,500 being able to view the video.

Implications

Security cameras are a tool used by those looking for companies to make resources to protect them. These incidents show Wyze security cameras did not have the capabilities to protect their users. The Verge reports Wyze was aware of security flaws in the WyzeCam v1 cameras for more than 4 years but discontinued the product rather than fixing the issue. Discontinuing the product does not help those who already own the product, and it is the nature of cloud cameras that the consumer must trust companies to deliver the proper security patches to protect their private information.

"Bait and Switch" Style Behavior

When Wyze and Wyze v2 cameras were popularized in 2018 and prior, they were sold under the premise that 24h recording or infinitely long video clips are a subscription add-on, but short video clips would be included for free using their cloud service.

Sometime between 2020 and 2022 this video clip service became a subscription for $1.99 per camera.

Likely in an attempt to prevent legal action, they released a "cam plus lite" package, but enabling this feature is buried in menus and sub-menus in the website. To date there's no way to enable it in the phone app which is the main way users access their cameras. Users can however use the phone app to pay monthly for the same or similar service.

Terms of Use

• Wyze's terms include forced arbitration, and a waiver of class action and jury trial.
• They may suspend or terminate your use of the product at any time and claim they're not responsible if this causes financial loss.
• Wyze may either stop providing software updates, or do automatic software updates without consent. The only alternative is to cease using the product.