Wyze

Wyze

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

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, because of security failures.

In early September 2023, many users of Wyze security cameras reported being able to see the feeds of cameras that were not their own. A Wyze spokesperson reported this was because of a "web caching issue and [had been] 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 user's 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 reported that 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 did not help those who already own the product, and it is the nature of cloud cameras that the consumer must be able to trust companies to deliver proper security patches to protect his private information.

Bait-and-switch behavior

When Wyze and Wyze v2 cameras were popularized in 2018 and before, they were sold under the premise that 24-hour recording or infinitely long video clips are a subscription add-on, but that short video clips would be included for free using their cloud service. Sometime between 2020 and 2022, Wyze changed its policy, charging a subscription of $1.99 per camera for the video-clip service.

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 is no way to enable this feature in the phone app, which is the primary 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 of service include forced arbitration, and a waiver of class action and jury trial.
• Wyze may suspend or terminate your use of the product at any time and claim they are not responsible if this causes financial loss.
• Wyze can both stop providing software updates and do automatic software updates without consent. The only alternative is to cease using the product.