In case you’re living under a rock, a security researcher has uncovered a pretty huge security vulnerability with Eufy’s doorbells and other camera products. This sort of thing happens, and happens quite often. But the big reason why we are no longer recommending their doorbells and cameras has to do with how they are handling it. Acting like it’s not a big deal, when it is. So what’s going on? Well, to keep it short (you can read the longer version here), Eufy’s “offline” cameras aren’t as secure as they should be. Basically, anyone is able to watch video from your Eufy camera, from anywhere. There’s also some data that is uploaded to the cloud that customers were not aware of. So, you could input the right URL into VLC and be able to watch anyone’s camera, remotely without any authentication. The no authentication part is the scary part. This has greatly upset the Eufy community, with quite a few people opting to destroy their Eufy cameras. There’s tons of people doing it on Twitter actually. And we can’t really blame them.
— Paul Moore (@Paul_Reviews) November 25, 2022
So why are we no longer recommending Anker products?
Whether you know it or not, Eufy is a sub-brand of Anker. So promoting Anker’s products is still supporting Eufy. So it’s with a heavy heart that we have to cut off the entire company. Anker is not a small company anymore. They actually have revenues in the billions now. They have become a big charging and battery pack company over the years, and the go-to for many people. Which makes this even tougher of a decision here. I myself have reviewed a number of Anker and Eufy products over the years, and thoroughly enjoyed them, and still use some day-to-day. But I will be removing the one Eufy camera that I have.
We have a reputation to uphold
As one of the biggest Android-centric websites on the Internet, we have a pretty big reputation that we need to uphold. When someone reads one of our many buyers guides, they expect to see products that are good, of quality and not broadcasting their home over the internet for anyone to access without authentication. We aren’t the only ones that are ending recommendations of Eufy products, Android Central and Review Geek are a couple of examples of other websites that have also made this decision. So with that said, you will continue to see us covering Eufy, but only in terms of updating everyone on what’s going on with this scandal. Any new products they may announced at CES next month, we won’t be covering. We are also working to update all of our buyer’s guides and any other articles that recommend Anker, Eufy, Nebula or Soundcore.
