Anker Offered To Pay Eufy Camera Owners To Share Videos For Training Its Ai

Earlier this year, Anker, nan Chinese institution that makes Eufy information cameras, offered its users money successful speech for videos of packages and car thefts. 

The celebrated internet-connected information camera shaper said it would salary its customers $2 per video to train its AI systems to thief amended observe thieves who bargain cars and packages.  

“To guarantee we person capable data, we are looking for videos of some existent and staged events, to thief train nan Al what to beryllium connected nan lookout for,” nan institution wrote connected its website.  

“You tin moreover create events by pretending to beryllium a thief and donate those events,” nan website reads. “You tin complete this quickly. Maybe 1 enactment tin beryllium captured by your 2 outdoor cameras simultaneously, making it businesslike and easy. If you besides shape a car doorway theft, you mightiness gain $80.” 

Eufy besides wrote that “the information collected from these staged events is utilized solely for training our Al algorithms and not for immoderate different purposes.”  

This inaugural shows that companies are consenting to salary to get users’ information they deliberation tin beryllium useful to train their AI models. While this gives immoderate users nan expertise to get worth retired of their ain data, location are information and privateness risks involved.  

Case successful point: Last week, TechCrunch recovered that Neon, a viral calling app that offered money to users consenting to stock recordings and transcripts of their calls, had a information flaw that allowed users to entree immoderate different user’s data. After being alerted of nan information lapse, Neon went offline.  

Hundreds of thousands of videos ‘donated’ to train AI

Eufy’s run offering $2 per video for theft videos ran from December 18, 2024, to February 25, 2025. More than 120 users responded connected nan campaign’s announcement page saying they participated successful it, according to comments posted by users there.  

The company’s extremity was to cod 20,000 videos each of package thefts and of “pulling car doors.” Eufy users could participate by filling retired a Google Form wherever they could upload videos and their PayPal relationship for payment.  

Eufy did not respond to TechCrunch’s requests for remark and our questions, specified arsenic really galore users participated successful nan campaign, really overmuch money it paid those users, really galore videos nan institution collected, and whether nan institution deleted nan collected videos aft training its AI systems.  

Since then, Eufy has akin campaigns aimed astatine incentivizing its customers to nonstop successful videos to train their AI. 

As of nan clip of publication, done different in-app run that Eufy calls nan Video Donation Program to amended its AI systems, Eufy besides offers users rewards that scope from an “Apprentice Medal,” which appears to simply beryllium a badge adjacent to nan user’s sanction successful nan app, to gifts specified arsenic cameras aliases gift cards. 

Eufy is only asking for videos involving humans for this campaign. 

The Eufy app besides shows a “Honor Wall” that ranks users who person donated nan astir video events. The leader of nan ranking has donated 201,531 videos, according to nan app.  

In nan app’s page for nan aid program, Eufy clarifies that “donated videos are only utilized for Al training and improvement. Eufy will not supply nan video to 3rd parties.” 

Eufy besides asks users to donate videos recorded pinch nan company’s babe monitors. The support page detailing nan steps to stock nan videos does not mention immoderate money reward for these videos.  

Eufy did not respond erstwhile asked astir this peculiar initiative.  

There are reasons to beryllium doubtful of Eufy’s commitments to protect users’ privacy. In 2023, The Verge revealed that nan institution tried to screen up that users’ camera streams, which nan institution advertised arsenic end-to-end encrypted, were unencrypted erstwhile accessed done its web portal.  

After a backmost and distant pinch nan tech news site, Anker admitted it misled users and promised to hole nan issue.