I don’t know if anyone else has seen this article in The NY Times. I am not endorsing the accuracy of this article but I believe it requires some sort of thoughtful response from Wyze.
I just read this piece and am sorry I just purchased the Battery Cam. They do need to address this situation.
I totally agree. I was quite shocked when I read this story today…and, yet, I don’t see any comments from Wyze. What’s up with that???
I think Wyze should live up to a higher standard than “Most businesses” since they chose one of their core values to be “Be Friends with users.” Nobody forced that on them. But when you adopt and proclaim your core values, you must live up to them to a high standard.
I am not going to say Wyze did everything wrong here either. They did A LOT right. However, there is still more they should do to live up to their own standards.
Yes, they did react fast (3 times faster than Steam when they had the same caching problem), and they fixed it fast and brought it back online, and they publicly told us the problem (it was a caching issue, which tells us pretty much everything…the website was accidentally switched by someone to use a global cache instead of individual cache, so it kept distributing the new global cache to everyone, but didn’t allow streaming access…what else does anyone really need to know? That pretty much explains it all), and they implemented some new safe guards to prevent similar problems, and they told us it was limited to 10 people and they contacted everyone affected all directly…but they didn’t do an email or anything yet.
To be fair, they have said they haven’t finished their investigation yet, so they haven’t really made their final announcement because they want to wait until their facts are all complete. And that’s reasonable TBH, BUT it’s been 10 days, you shouldn’t wait that long if you’re “friends with users.”
Wirecutter’s demands:
- Reach out to customers as soon as possible: Send an email to all customers, send push notifications in the app, put out a press release, broadcast in the Wyze Communities online forum.
- Describe the issue in detail and state precisely who was affected (and who wasn’t).
- Explain specifically what steps are being taken to aid affected customers and what if any actions the customer needs to take on their own.
- Follow-up with customers to let them know the issue has been resolved.
I think Wyze has actually already done everything Wirecutter is asking for except for emailing everyone and sending a press release. I’m personally not convinced a press-release was needed for something that only affected 10 users, but their hands are basically tied now. They can easily just say they hadn’t done one yet because their investigation hadn’t completed yet (they’ve been constantly saying they are still investigating, so this is probably even the truth). I think many users are just going to feel hurt and betrayed that they are first hearing about this from a NEWS article instead of hearing it from Wyze directly first (my brothers felt this way). If you’re friends with someone (as Wyze wants their core value to be), you don’t let them find out from the news, you proactively make an effort to let them know anything important going on with you recently, and you are as transparent as possible. Wyze did many things right with this issue, but they definitely have room for improvement if they want to live up to those standards they chose for themselves.
Personally, I think Wirecutter should’ve said that Wyze should commit to implement the following (whether they already do it or not):
- Conduct regular security audits and penetration tests, including with trusted, outside, 3rd party auditors.
- Partnering with leading security experts
- Investing in employee training on cybersecurity best practices (which I know they already do, but should still mention it)
I think that would go a long way for most people to know that a respected 3rd party with no potential conflict of interest is reviewing things sometimes.
Our thread was moved to The Watercooler forum. “Have you ever had the urge to talk about Wyze but not just about our products? Yeah, we noticed that didn’t fit well in the other categories. Watercooler conversations about general topics can be held here!”… because this topic apparently has nothing to do with cameras or the actual forum post referenced in the article that this thread began on. Amazing!
First, I totally agree with the WireCutter article and the issues they point out. I scaled back my usage of Wyze products a long time ago for these and other reasons (flaky notifications, flaky services, etc.).
HOWEVER…
I find it quite ironic that the “best indoor security cameras” WireCutter currently endorses are Eufy. That’s Eufy - the same Eufy that has had their own horrible security and privacy issues - and controversies. The same Eufy that hemmed and hawed and delayed and obfuscated and covered up after they were called out with cold hard evidence. The same Eufy that failed to do the very things WireCutter is calling on Wyze to do.
So yes I agree Wyze has issues, and I’m not defending them because there’s no reason to do so. But Eufy is just as bad or worse and WireCutter just lost whatever standing they still had with me.
Just my opinion of course.
Edit: if I sound salty it’s because I am - after I ditched Wyze, I moved to Eufy - right before Eufy’s privacy/security meltdown and the less-than-stellar way they handled it.
Yes, I had similar thoughts. They recommend Eufy and Ring, both of which have had pretty bad issues (they said Ring has made improvements, but I could argue that they are still pretty bad or worse in some ways). As for Eufy, you covered it pretty well, but I wouldn’t have worded so nicely:
I would’ve said: The same Eufy that LIED and gaslighted everyone over and over again, calling respected security experts liars even after they proved the problems and independent journalists confirmed it, and still they fought hard and lied against irrefutable evidence until their parent company finally had to step in and intervene only because it started affecting all the rest of their businesses outside of Eufy.
And I’m saying that as someone who isn’t a hater…I have owned Eufy products since 2020 and I bought my most recent eufy products in April even after all this happened. So I didn’t abandon them, and I still bought some new stuff from them recently, but I’ll still call it like it is…they totally lied and gaslighted everyone until they had absolutely no other option…but WireCutter will recommend them over Wyze…like “what the…” 
Call me confused.
You are actually 100% correct - I forgot how bad the Eufy situation was.
But I don’t want to derail this thread more than I already did - back on topic - WireCutter! Wyze!
Wirecutter (NY Times) revokes recommendations for all Wyze cameras
Following Wyze’s apparent failure to alert users or respond in any way to news of some users being able to view other users’ videos through the web portal. Wirecutter has revoked recommendations for ALL Wyze cameras
Interesting that you came to that conclusion. Where did you read that misinformation? We knew about it here in the forum mere minutes after it happened and Wyze shut it down within 30 minutes. Wyze has identified the 10 users affected and has contacted every one of them. Updates on the scope and cause of the incident we’re provided very shortly afterward. And we have been updated several times.
I’m posting what I received from the NY Times Wirecutter service. This is how they feel about it. I don’t have any other way of letting Wyze know about this. Hopefully they already do. Wirecutter is still pretty influential.
I chose Wyze for my cameras in part because Wirecutter gave them a seal of approval. I’m still using them (though some are crapping out over time).
You may want to be a bit more critical of your information sources. The NY Times… biased opinions for sale, no objectivity required. Wirecutter… they are still endorsing Eufy, that’s a really good credibility barometer right there.
Who gives a hoot about how “they” feel about it? They are being paid for their opinion and will spew whatever shock story sells more ads, not the truth. Post how you feel about it after doing the research to learn the truth.
Why is Wyze cameras on all news articles talking about how other people can view your cameras? I never received any notification from Wyze about this issue. Very irresponsible!!
Welcome to the Wyze User Community Forum @richie183! 
Because it is a slow news day and all the “news” retail peddlers are trying to fill open content space by republishing old news that other sites reported over a week ago.
Because you weren’t one of the 10 (yes Ten) customers affected.
I like how NYTimes is completely ignoring the Eufy situation that every other news source is writing about…
It seems that Wyze not commenting on this article to us, their users, confirms what the article suggests. Wyze is not taking security seriously?
The ten users that REPORTED the incident.
Do you have proof there were more or are you just inferring? [Mod Edit]