Change WiFi Network Name (SSID) and password without device reset

[carverofchoice]

@wecarealot

we’re expected to give away our location just to set/reset a camera

This is Google’s & Apple’s decision more than it is Wyze’s. As I’ve explained to others:

@carverofchoice

To clarify why Wyze requires location permission to setup certain devices, it’s because setup requires using Bluetooth (or WiFi) permissions and if any app has Bluetooth access (or WiFi Access) it can easily determine your exact current location just by scanning what Bluetooth devices (or WiFi Devices or SSID’s) are within signal reach. It doesn’t need GPS to know exactly where you are at.

Same thing with Wi-Fi. If an app can scan nearby Wi-Fi SSIDs then it doesn’t need GPS to know exactly where you are at.

Due to the above facts, Android has forced app developers to request location permissions in order to gain Bluetooth access. This is to make sure that users are aware that by giving Bluetooth permission, the app company automatically has access to their location just as if they gave them GPS access.

Since the IoT industry is making a big push to have all smart devices use Bluetooth for setup, and often use Wi-Fi for ongoing connectivity, this basically means that every smart home company will have access to your location even if you try to fake your GPS location with a spoofing program like a VPN. If they can scan your WiFi or Bluetooth, they know your real location.

What you can do to mitigate this a little bit is only allow that permission “one time” during setup instead of ongoing permission. But even so, if they care, they’ll already know your location from that one time when you set it up.

I personally doubt Wyze cares that much since they don’t “sell” our private data. But the main point is, one of the only ways you’re going to get any smart devices without someone knowing your location is by using a strictly local and privacy oriented platform like Home Assistant. Any cloud based company app like Wyze, Ring, Arlo, Nest, or basically any corporation will ask to scan Bluetooth or Wi-Fi to setup their devices and thus can know your location if they care to.

That is Why Android requires you to get location permissions for the Wyze app when you set up devices, because you need to use Bluetooth to set them up, and Android wants you to know that means they’ll know your real location even if you try to spoof your GPS.

@wecarealot

The server that gives us our alerts run through Asia so that means the Chinese not only have a view into our homes,

That is absolutely 100% incorrect and a common misunderstanding. Your video stream never routes to Asia, ever. If you view your camera while you’re on your home network, that video stream never even leaves your house/router. It streams directly from your camera to your Phone. It doesn’t even route the video through the internet, let alone the Wyze servers, let alone any Asian Server.

If you are away from home and live stream your camera through the app on your phone, the video stream is still a direct Peer to Peer connection with your Camera. The video stream is not routing through some other server…Wyze or otherwise.

Now if you’re using the browser Web Portal, that does use Amazon Kinesis to route the video stream through AWS, though it stays in the USA.

You may be thinking of either a ping or authentication through TUTK (Throughtek is a Taiwanese company), but they basically do the authentication and even that is supposed to stay with the US servers (I believe there is currently something like the WCO Base station that is using an Asia IP for either the ping or Authentication, though hopefully Wyze resolves that, but even so, they do NOT ever have any access to the video stream).

Our alerts/notiications also do not go through Asia. They go through AWS and Wyze servers located in the USA.