Anker offered to pay Eufy camera owners to share videos for training its AI

Summary

Earlier this year, Anker, the Chinese company that makes Eufy security cameras, offered its users money in exchange for videos of packages and car thefts. The popular internet-connected security camera maker said it would pay its customers $2 per video to train its AI systems to help better detect thieves who steal cars and packages. “To ensure we have enough data, we are looking for videos of both real and staged events, to help train the Al what to be on the lookout for,” the company wrote on its website. “You can even create events by pretending to be a thief and donate those events,” the website reads. “You can complete this quickly. Maybe one act can be captured by your two outdoor cameras simultaneously, making it efficient and easy. If you also stage a car door theft, you might earn $80.” Eufy also wrote that “the data collected from these staged events is used solely for training our Al algorithms and not for any other purposes.” This initiative shows that companies are willing to pay to get users’ data they think can be useful to train their AI models. While this gives some users the ability to get value out of their own data, there are security and privacy risks involved. Case in point: Last week, TechCrunch found that Neon, a viral calling app that offered money to users willing to share recordings and transcripts of their calls, had a security flaw that allowed users to access any other user’s data. After being alerted of the security lapse, Neon went offline. Hundreds of thousands of videos ‘donated’ to train AI Eufy’s campaign offering $2 per video for theft videos ran from December 18, 2024, to February 25, 2025. More than 120 users responded on the campaign’s announcement page saying they participated in it, according to comments posted by users there. The company’s goal was to collect 20,000 videos each of package thefts and of “pulling car doors.” Eufy users could participate by filling out a Google Form where they could upload videos and their Pay...