I realize that Tik Tok is helping with Wyze sales which is good. 
We have been warned not to use it in Canada and others may be aware as well
Maybe Tik Tok is not harvesting data but I do not trust it.
Hopefully Wyze will continue to use alternatives to Tik Tok for events like Black Friday / Cyber Monday⌠⌠as well as ⌠Tik Tok for those ok taking the risks ⌠if they exist âŚ
FYI, Wyze Gwendolyn mostly turned over oversight and management of the forums to WyzeJason. Gwendolyn is still the Primary manager/overseer of the Facebook Groups at the moment. I think they share Discord. They also have other responsibilities, but in the context of social media, Jason is the primary employee we will see here, though other employees (including Gwendolyn) are always welcome and sometimes visit too.
For what it is worth, Jimmy addressed the sales specials on Discord a couple of times and confirmed that Wyze does and will continue to also do non-TikTok related sales on their own website/app and other platforms such as Amazon, Lowes, and other platforms they have partnerships with. So Wyze has already committed to continue to do what you have asked here. The only downside is that TikTok throws in tons of their own money to make Wyze deals even bigger sales than Wyze can do on their on their own. Wyze canât really control the fact that TikTok is throwing away tons of money of their own volition at users to make things even lower priced than Wyze could afford to do themselves and on top of the Wyze prices.
The Home Depot did some similar stuff recently when they were selling Wyze Outdoor plugs for like $5 each, and Wyze Indoor Plugs 2-Pack for $5 each.
Sometimes Amazon also does extra specials themselves by giving up some of their profit margin for special sales.
Anyway, Jimmy confirmed Wyze will continue to do this (offer sales that arenât just on TikTok), but that TikTok will still also run their own special sales on their platform. Wyze stuff are some of, if not THE most popular things selling on TikTok right now, so itâs really likely that TikTok will keep using that fact to convince more and more people to shop with them as long as that continues to be the case. So donât be surprised if we continue to see some crazy priced deals on TikTok since TikTok throws away a bunch of their own money to bring prices down even lower than the sales price that Wyze sets.
I share your concern. The deceitfulness & desire to control exhibited by the CCP is not to be trivialized.
I note that my last couple devices required me to have location services on that I have not had to use in the past.
I really donât understand why itâs important that WYZE knows where my camera is set up.
I would also be even more concerned if there is a business or legal/info sharing arrangement between tik tok and WYZE considering all the advanced electronic & facial recognition possibilities.
This link below in a recent Time article.
This is more of Apple and Google Fault, not Wyze.
Apple and Google wonât âallowâ you to use Bluetooth through an app unless you give that app total location permissions. The rationale Apple and Google give for not just allowing you to give Bluetooth permission without location permission is that they say that companies can actually use Bluetooth access to know your exact location anyway. It is one of the things iOS and Android use when they do âHigh accuracyâ mode for location pinpointing. Bluetooth alone allows for Proximity solutions, RTLS, and IPS to allow any company to determine, solely using Bluetooth, exactly where a person is though methods that include triangulation through MAC addresses. Thus, because it is possible to figure out a personâs exact location with just Bluetooth, Apple and Google felt that they might as well force people to agree to location permissions so that a person would know that it is POSSBLE for the app that uses bluetooth for any reason to be ABLE to know their exact location. They arenât necessarily saying that app IS absolutely using their location, but if youâre going to allow it to use Bluetooth, you may as well know that the app could have your location if they want it, so you have to give permission for location if you want to use anything with Bluetooth. Thatâs the decision Apple and Google made and what they force on app makers and users. Personally, I think they should still leave the 2 permission completely separate and just give a disclaimer that bluetooth permissions may allow them to figure out your location, but not force us to give ALL other location data. That seems dumb to me, but it is what theyâve decided to force on the world, so here we are.
So, the reason you need to give Wyze location permission is because so many of their devices use Bluetooth, particularly for provisioning/setup, but some of them use it to function at all (smart scales, for example).
Some older Wyze devices used WiFi direct instead of Bluetooth, but that requires location permission now too (for identical reason to why Bluetooth requires location permission). Wyze has had some cameras to get around this in the past by letting them scan a QR code instead of Bluetooth provisioning, but you canât scan a QR code with a light bulb, or smart plug. Plus, even with cameras, QR codes will be rare now. This is due to a big push in the IoT industry to standardize provisioning and there has been a push to doing this with Bluetooth.
In the early days with Matter, they were pushing requirements to be that devices should support IPv6 and Bluetooth for provisioning (ie: with WiFi IoTâŚobviously Zigbee/Thread can provision directly on Zigbee/Thread alone). With that in mind, almost everybody started using Bluetooth for provisioning, and I am pretty confident most Wyze products, and other companiesâ products will primarily be using Bluetooth for provisioning for the foreseeable future. Which means that if you want to set up an IoT device, youâre going to have to give location permissions to that company because this is what is demanded by Google/Apple.
The irony is that Apple and Google are 2 of the main players in the Matter consortium, so they are the 2 of the main entities who pushed people to standardize making lots of IoT devices require Bluetooth for provisioning. Then they turn around and require you to give location permission for that. So in a way, from a certain perspective, it can look like Apple and Google are trying to force all IoT companies to be given location permissions if you want a smart home. To be clear, I donât think that is really Apple and Googleâs intent, but it does [in]conveniently work out that way.
Summary: Wyze has to get your location permissions to set up or use some devices. That doesnât necessarily mean they care about your location (maybe they do, maybe they donât) if youâre not using their location-based rules. If you are concerned about this, #1 take it up with Apple/Google for forcing it to be this way. #2 just tell it to âask every timeâ for approval for location permission. Then if you donât need the Wyze app for Bluetooth right now while you use your scale, they donât get permission to bluetooth/location until youâre ready to setup a new device or use your scale or earbud/headphone settings or floor lamp or lock or gun safe or whatever else. You can choose to only turn on location permission when you need it.
OtherwiseâŚfinding any other IoT (smart home) company app that doesnât require location permission is going to be difficult since most of them will be using Bluetooth or WiFi to provision their devices and Apple/Google wonât let them do that without location permission either.
