@peepeep should run a poll on this. Not to change Wyze’s collective minds, but for something to learn.
I am a first believer of 2FA for important apps that could affect my general security such as finance or other critical matters. I don’t feel that my gadget cameras warrant this type of security. I don’t trust Wyze with any security related matters.
I won’t use anything Wyze has that relies on trust. All of my cams are external facing and show nothing of importance to the common man. I definitely would not use a gadget lock on an external door, but that is me.
I use complex unique passwords that are monitored for break-ins. I don’t feel that my gadgets need 2FA. I will probably disable 2FA. I am glad Wyze does not require a password change after 30 days.
Whatever. It is what it is. I have other concerns in this crazy upside down cloud world.
Sounds like your problem is humanity, not Wyze. Enabling 2FA by default is a good move by Wyze, both from the perspective of protecting customers and from the perspective of avoiding more negative PR from not protecting customers.
If you don’t like it due to your personal philosophy or niche use case, turn it off.
Well we are paying customers for Wyze products. Its not a free service we get. And we don’t simply buy one camera and use it for 20 years. We continue to generate revenue annually or monthly when (not if) we participate in the Cam Plus service. So we continue to be customers.
So, please explain to me for US, the logic behind this:
We (being Wyze) added Two Factor log in’s.
We advertised it, we announced it, we sent emails to educate our customers, We showed interest in their safety and protection. We did our part and then some.
We contacted people at risk and implore that they turn on Two Factor authentication.
We made it an option, they can turn it one when they wish. Those that are comfortable with other methods can also turn Two Factor authentication off at their choosing.
And then we decide that’s not enough, these grown-up, these adults that give us their hard earned money for our products and we are truly grateful they are our customers, our family and friends, let’s decide for them because they are NOT capable of making decisions for themselves, - we will FORCE them to USE TWO FACTOR AUTHENTICATION. LIKE IT OR NOT.
But we will still give them the choice AGAIN, to turn it off. BUT WE ARE GOING TO FORCE YOU TO TURN IT OFF, if YOU DON’T WANT TO USE IT. I guess because we know better for you what’s good for you, like it or not.
So, folks because we know better than you, we are going to put hundreds if not tens of thousands of paying customers through the pain of getting back into their account, finding the button, probably make them Authenticate that they know what they are doing, because we want to do this. Oh, and yeah, because we love ya.
I don’t think I have shared this before here. I keep a ledger, two columns, pretty simple. Assets and Liabialities. the name of the Ledger is WYZE - PITA. I doubt there’s anyone here that needs me to spell out what PITA stands for. My mom, though I love her dearly is also at times a PITA. Proving I can both love and hate in the same moment.
Most of us recognize the assets of Wyze, but on my list of Liabialities is things like:
Had to purchase WiFi Plugs (not Wyze) so I can remotely restart my cameras because for years, they sometimes (too often) just stop communicating.
Had to buy higher amp power adapters, 'cause those 1 amp just were not enough. Maybe I was wrong, but it surely made a difference regardless of what anyone says.
I have become an unpaid beta tester of firmware that too frequently goes Tango Uniform.
I have become an upaid technical diagnostician of the app and have to explain numerous times to numerous people the same issue again during said sessions, I have to rewind to creation day to convince them that I know what I am talking about when I say, “it ain’t working today, but it was last week and last year”. (I am fibbing here, as I gave up years ago contacting customer support. I only use the brain power and experience of the fellow customers here on the forum.)
I can now add 5 Stars to the Liability column to credit the Two-Factor Authentication being forced on me, temporary punishment or permanent.
The Liability column is getting heavier and heavier to tote and won’t be much longer before it outweighs the Asset side and I mosey on down the brand replacement aisle at my smart home supermarket.
And I freely admit to being one of those rednecks that will cut off his’en noses to spite his face, both faces.
Did you miss the part at the bottom where you can turn it off?
I strongly believe things like 2fa should be opt-out, as it greatly increases the security of your account.
I’m glad they are doing this, and hopefully the third party apps/services will use the api and oauth to comply with the new requirements. But if you really need to turn it off, you can… just don’t complain to wyze when your account is compromised.
If it was not for Live View, I would have no problem with 2FA. I work at my PC and use live view to check my cameras throughout the day. I find I need to log back in every second time I come back to the tab with live view up. This is because Wyze will not allow me to see a feed of my cameras on my local network, nor will they let me have access to the SD card through my network. There is no reason why that should be the case other than trying to lock it down so they can sell me access.
All my cameras are exterior and are on a guest network with no access to my network, and my password is exclusive to the app and secure. I tried 2FA as I am security conscious, but with the need to constantly log back in it is just too much of a PIA.
I will turn it off when it gets turned on, but I do not like them assuming my security is bad, they need to fix it, so I don’t need to log in every time I want to see my camera feed, if they really want to do something useful.
This is a problem created by Wyze, and only they can fix it.
No sir, I did not miss the part where I can turn it off. Which makes the entire exercise even more ridiculous, doesn’t it? Think about it, if we can turn it off, then why put me, you, and tens of thousands more paying customers through this? Just don’t fix what’s not broke.
It is broken. You seem very stuck in your own head, only caring about yourself and your perception of what is best for you, and unwilling to consider that there are other people in the world who may not do things like you do and that there are threats you don’t seem to understand.
Wyze doesn’t know you, they don’t know if you reuse passwords across sites. Reality is a lot of people do and 2fa is one of the least inconvenient and draconian ways to help address that.
Do some reading up on the plethora of recent news articles about credential stuffing. Many people get very upset if others get access to their camera feeds, and for good reasons. Wyze is trying to get ahead of that and I applaud them for that.
A few links to get you started if you want to learn:
Hope that helps folks understand where Wyze is coming from.
Wow, you did a survey and queried the opinion of like-minded like yourself and found all agree with you and I am the only one that objects to 2FA? My goodness, you are wasting your amazing skills writing to me, then.
Just a reminder about the Community Guidelines since it appears conversation is getting warm. Here are some specific parts that could become an issue in here:
Is this just about Live View, or are there other situations where constantly having to log in is required?
I use the app on my Android phones and do not remember the last time I needed to log in, so for them 2FA would be of no concern, but Live View is always a problem. I get failed log ins if my VPN is connected half the time and I need to disconnect from the VPN server to get connected. Then I am constantly logged out and need to go through the whole process again, and adding 2FA to that is a non-starter.
To a very large degree, this could be eliminated by just giving me a live feed of my cameras over my network without the need to log in to the Wyze server.
Some aftermarket firmware will give me a local feed, but I pay for a service from Wyze and feel they need to step up and give us a local camera feed without requiring the problematic log in.
When it comes to log in problems of all the sites I use, Wyze is the worst and the fact that I need to log in constantly to use the service just adds insult to injury.
I have said it before, Wyze can resolve these problems without blaming their customers but seem determined to put the snake on us.
I should not be required to log in to a service to see a live feed from my camera on my network!
And when you log in to Live View using the 2FA, it asks if you want to trust this device for 30 days. If you select the “Trust this device” answer, you don’t need to use the 2FA for a month. And I have confirmed that this works. So you can’t handle 2FA once a month? Fine, opt out…
