That doesn’t mean we are “safe” using Wyze
Here are just a FEW of the 1000’s of threat headlines, in regards to China, against the U.S.
Not following, I never suggested you were, in fact I said the opposite.
Same here, But i do have a few internal cams, that are placed in areas of the house that are not important, IF someone was to hack / remote in…Also ALL Sound recording is turned off within the house…
That doesn’t mean they couldn’t turn sound back on, if the cam was hacked,
This is what China was doing back in 2017-2018
But security threats, data theft, IP theft, hacking, by China, have been going long before 2018
The China SuperMicro Hack: About That Bloomberg Report
I hear you, but 2FA is not secure.
Think of 2FA like Wifi WEP version 1
NOT WEP 2
That is why most companies are moving to PASSKEYS
Because 2FA is not secure
If a hacker gains access to the Wyze cam Web Servers
They have the keys to the castle, they don’t need to worry breaking 2FA codes..
They have access to ALL accounts when hacking into the web servers.
Computer security, IS limiting the amount / number of areas that can be attacked.
Omitting the web access side of Wyze web cam interface WILL reduce the Surface Attack area.
Which means everyone would be MORE secure.
Yes, ALL devices are hackable, BUT some are MUCH more hackable then others,
Also when a company manufactures a device in a Chinese Communist Country, that is trying to dethrone the U.S. and other countries, and has a LONG history, of security threats, Back door access to Chinese made devices, why would anyone in their right mind automatically trust the Chinese made device.
They Don’t need to hack into the device THEY Made…They already Know how to get into the device, without needing to hack it. Because THEY made the device.
That is exactly what happened to Super Micro Server Motherboard maker, that makes server computer motherboards that are, and were used in many LARGE companies, including Amazon and many others.
A backdoor, chip, was installed on the Motherboard, when it was manufactured in China
Those motherboards were installed in servers, in many large companies.
I have worked in IT of multiple decades, and stay on top of security news / threats, on a daily basis for many years…So yes, adding a another access point/web service ,to access users Wyzw cam’s drastically increases, the attack surface, Web servers are the #1 attack target by hackers…
That is a national security threat to ALL
U.S. Gov, military, Business, personal
you are giving Blanket Trust to China, a country that is trying to take down the U.S. and Dominate world wide.
You don’t have to take my words
Just read the news on the topic of China Security threat to the U.S.
for the last 15 years…more so in the last 10…
China is not your friend, or anyone else’s
And fact is, any device made in China has to be highly scrutinized, compared to any other country.
2FA using an authenticator app is arguably more secure than using passkeys.
As to the rest of your points -
Most wyze servers are hosted within AWS. Far from infallible, but a hacker gaining access into their server at the user mode level is unlikely. As for the rest of the ways they can be accessed, that’s why they’ve been adding new security protocols, but until they shut down old access and API, there are potential ways in. Sure, being able to disable web view would potentially reduce your attack surface, however if you think they can gain access to the servers, they can enable your web view (in reality, they wouldn’t need to, since they could access the streams directly).
You don’t need to keep repeating the China stuff. I’m aware, I’ve been in the networking and security field for nearly 30 years. I’m not giving blanket trust to anyone, especially not China. Just trying to tell you that you have Chinese electronics all around you, TP Link is no more or less of a risk than any others.
Guess what - Supermicro is still a very popular server board and is in use in some of the most powerful AI servers in the world.
If you don’t want your cams to work with web view, you can most likely block it in your firewall. Go log in, fire up a cam, see what port it uses, and as long as it is a different port from other stuff your cam connects to, block that port from all your wyze cams. Now your web view is disabled.
Where did I ever imply that?
Thats not true, FIOS is not Symmetrical, unless one has FIOS Business servics.
IPV6 security, depends on what block of IPv6 address ones uses
Global or Link Local IPv6 address, Link Local are not routable by design to access the internet.
With IPV6 if one disables their firewall, they are STILL secure if they are using a Link Local IPv6 address for their network.
IPV6 is actually more secure than ipV4, if the user configures IPv6 properly
IPv6 on Wyze cams, would offer speed, and a higher level of security. IPv6 by design is more secure than IPv4
Sorry but I TOTALLY disagree with you
China is not sitting still trying to take down the U.S.
Again all I can say is read a lot about ALL the 1000’s of threats /hacks and such over the last 15+ years by China…
Here are JUST a FEW of the 1000’s of security threats from China..
2FA hacks have been going on for some years?
And its getting worse by the day
Microsoft’s Copilot AI Caught Letting Hackers Steal Your 2FA Codes Through a Single Click
When it comes to security nothing is unlikely
Now that hackers are using AI, and Also Claud AI, which scans for security weaknesses / holes, and has found SOOOOO many security holes across the board, they had to stop users from using Claud, to keep what Claud has found, secrete, until all the security holes that it found are addressed.
AI overall, has drastically increased the security threat landscape for Everything…Think of it as a Super hacker, better than humans…and can do the job of hacking in hours or minutes, not days, weeks or months, like Humans.
Hugh?
That makes no sense
If I were to block Wyze Web View on my network
That doesn’t mean anything
Wyze Web View, resides on Web Servers, that are accessible to anyone in the world
If I block access on my network to Wyse Web View,
Wyze web view IS STILL accessible to the rest of the world
So me blocking it, only blocks ME, from accessing it
Not the rest of the world from accessing Wyze Web View.
Yes, they almost didn’t survive as a company
also lost trust from many customers, and took some time to build that trust back up with customers
All the damage done to Super micro cost them millions and lots of lost time, and probably some business too.
Not to mention, if there was any data stolen, by China…which also causes damage, and brings further security risks…as nobody know the extent of data that China may have accessed or stolen, or if they were able to create FURHTER back doors, using the access they gave themselves, when making the Super Micro motherboards.
Seems your are Ok with having Chinese made electronics all around you
I am not, and outside of Wyze cams, I dont have any other Chinese electronics around me
8-10 Years ago I purchased on Amazon, a Chinese brand name Web Cam, even though I read multiple reviews on multiple Chinese made web cams, stating how users noticed on multiple brands of the web cams were communicating back to Chinese servers in China…
I tried the 1 brand, and when I installed it, and tracked/monitored IP traffic from the Chinese cam, the web cam traffic all went back to China…
I ditched the web cam after that…
Computer security by professional standards
Trust nothing
Verify everything
That is basically computer / network security in the nutshell.
Also even if a person or company DOES have Chinese made electonics all around them
What is that suppose to meanl, Just throw up ones hands and say oh well.
It’s still a security threat risk, if one cannot have FULL trust of the Chinese made equipment around them.
maintaining Personal or Corporate Security,
Means you have to have Trust in the equipment being used,
Or one cannot trust it, anyone in IT security knows that.
I leave sound Off on all of my cameras too. There are many threads on this forum about poor Wyze audio quality. So good luck to hackers trying to hear what my wife asked me to get from tne grocery store.
On a side note on microphones being turned off, my wife asked me for my Social Security number the other day. I said let me write it down for you. And yes, i do have a paper shredder.
Your safe!
Besides, the hackers don’t need to hear that you are going to the grocery store,
Since they already know, when you arrive AT the grocery store,.
From the grocery stores security cams 
I don’t place ANY security cams in locations of the house where we sit and eat, or talk, ever!
It was in the news some years back, the Smart TV’s that have cameras & mic’s in them were remotely monitoring people…I think LG was one of them..
yes, it was LG, but I am sure there are other Mfg’s too that do it, have done it
Here is a v3 video on how to disable the microphone if you feel you don’t want it to pick up any sound.
I would think just placing a drop good glue over the tiny mic hole should stop it from being able to pickup sound
I presume the mic hole is as the bottom area of the black surface are of the camera ( i viewing an old spare V2, but I would think all the cams have a pinhole mic somewhere that can be covered with a glue dot.
In my younger college days, I worked at a radio station. When I was having a private conversation in a recording studio I always would unplug the microphones cables.
The studio was for recording and never went Live On-The-Air, so forgetting to plug the cables back in (if I forgot) never was a problem.
Most people at that radio station did the same. When you found the mics unplugged, you knew someone was having a private conversation.
Plugging the connector in the video back in should be relatively easy if needed.
Did anyone ever forget to unplug the cable when having a private conversation? 
Overall, I wouldn’t want to take all the time to open up each in house wyze cam to disconnec the mic.
I would end of wrapping the entire camera in a ball of electrical tape, and only expose the camera lens
Now that you ask, the TV Weather man (from the TV station in the same building) was in the studio next to me using the phone. There were lights inside and outside the studio room that lit up “Recording” when a mic was on. The Weather man could have said turn off the mic if he noticed.
The comment I heard him say was “Wow, The Weather Channel job really pays that much?”. I never did hear the dollar amount though.
If you don’t subscribe, then it just uploads a single still frame to include as a thumbnail image in the notification and on the events tab instead of the full motion event. You can’t add a subscription to get the recorded video unlocked on the cloud, because it never had a video in the first place, only an image.
Yeah, most of the biggest Wyze competitors are Chinese companies (TP-Link Tapo, Eufy, Reolink, Aqara, Xiaomi, Yi, etc) and as you said, the biggest issue with them is that their government requires them to legally give them secret backdoor access to everything upon command at any time without telling you. Given that they are an adversarial country, that is likely to be weaponized at some point in the future. Yes, many of them CAN theoretically function locally, but almost nobody uses them that way because they still want to get notifications, updates, and other benefits from the cloud enhanced features. Nobody adds them to a router that is blocking their internet access entirely.
I admit I do have cameras from most of those companies, but I absolutely keep them away from any privacy-sensitive locations including where they might overhear me talking about confidential things in some way. They are strickly for something like redundancy watching my front yard for when there are Wyze outages. I acknowledge that even this can be risky because the devices can theoretically get a firmware update force-pushed to them which contain malware to infiltrate my home network and wreak major havoc on my entire network that I gave it access to…but I have tried to take some reasonable precautions against that with some security protocols with my advanced network, and I know I am a pretty low priority target…but I agree with you that the majority of people don’t understand any of the risks involved with this issue. China literally requires all companies to give them full unfettered access to everything upon request and not tell anyone about it. People think the biggest risk is that some Chinese agent may see their front yard, but don’t realize that the camera can have forced firmware updates unknowingly pushed to your device and used as a remote computer to do anything else they want on your network since you gave the device access and permission already. It is a reasonably high vulnerability.
But there aren’t really any good and affordable American companies that compete on the level of Wyze…only Chinese companies. The closest US competitor they have is Blink…and I have some of their cameras and Blink sucks. The others are really expensive and subscription dependent. People can complain about Wyze all they want, but they are pretty much the only US-Based Smart camera company in their league. 
Personally, I would kind of prefer a company that isn’t US-based (subject to US Jurisdiction manipulation) either, but also not with an adversarial country who is likely to weaponize their smart devices against US consumers at some point. Why can’t Switzerland make good cheap devices? 
100% local only with absolute device isolation and no direct internet access allowed is probably the only actual safe option that exists. 
Sounds like he may be been intentionally putting some pressure on his boss to raise his pay
In an inadvertent way
Reading your entire post/response
In short, you TOTALLY get it!
many people do not understand, or take the time to understand the issues/risks
If/When China tries to take over Taiwan, ( which the U.S. is already preparing for that war, by hiring 50,000 workers around the U.S. to build submarines) China WILL hit the internet, and all the devices that they have control of, or can easily gain control of…TO disrupt or shut down, those devices…OR in the case of Cameras, use them as remote sensors or for remote info…People don’t understand, China is playing Chess, and the rest of the world is playing Checkers, some countries are only starting to wake up to what China’s objectives are…To be the main super power, and control many parts of the globe, they tried doing it with the Panama Canal but thankfully we helped thwart that in the last 2 years…This is a large topic, but people should make NO mistake on China’s intentions globally…I have been watching the situation for many years…
Yes! You hit the nail on the head !
China uses their technology, which the world is now dependent on, (Example: there are NOT many NON Chinese network device companies around anymore…Years ago, there were dozens, of NON Chinese companies…China uses its economic prowess to gain global domination…Meaning Low Ball prices, causing competitors, to lose market share and eventually go out of business, leaving China as the only source…That’s when China has control, then they can make any move they want…
In short, we have to REMOVE the Dependencies with ANYTHING that is China made…
China looks at say, Cheap Routers, or network adapters, or network switches, as a tool that can be used for their Global ambitions, when they need to use it. or control it. — Since ALL Chinese companies, are in control by the Chinese government…So if there was a war, China would use those tools to it’s advantage…That is how the Chinese communist government thinks. Militarily…China has already built OVER 230 warships…People need to keep that in mind when buying Chinese products, as that money is helping build China’s military…
You it the nail on the head…
China looks at the Web Cams, Network Adapters, Network Switches, as TOOLS that are invading the foreign countries infrastructure…Tools that can be used to Track, Monitor, Locate, Shut down, the infrastructure of their adversaries…
China itselt can TRACK many of their own people with ALL the cameras they have around China, to the point It can identify, someone walking on the street, all remotely.
Think of what China can do, trying to located U.S. military, U.S. gov personnel who may have Chinese made equipment installed in government offices, military bases, or military’s own homes.
Thats were things are, and are going, further.
YEP ! you get it again!
And it’s a national security risk..
China is laughing because they have won, and dominated and crush all other competition
And we now have become dependant on Chinese products, Not just electronics,
Many U.S. port cranes, were made in China, and it now being reviewed by the U.S. Gov, as a national security risk, because the port cranes, have LOTS of electronic software that controls the port cranes, So one has to assume China is backdoored in, and also tracking the port crane..
Think of what they can do, if they remotely disable the port cranes
That is the state we are in
And it is very dangerous for U.S. and Any other country that has become reliant on China.