As technology has become more advanced, it has provided us with new state-of-the-art gadgets and devices. One such ‘smart’ offering out of all the other ‘smart’ devices has been the smart security cameras. Now, although these smart surveillance tools offer us convenience and flexibility, they’ve also come under scanner over privacy-related concerns. And another scary incident recently reported by a Redditor further reaffirmed the privacy concerns, where the Xiaomi Mijia security camera linked to a Google account displayed images from someone else’s home to Google Nest Hub, reports Android Police.
The issue was first reported by a Reddit user, named, /r/Dio-V, and the camera bug affected his Xiaomi Mijia 1080 Smart IP Security Camera. The camera was linked to a Google account for use with Google/Nest devices via Xiaomi’s Mi Home App/Service. Reddit user also mentioned that both the Nest Hub and the Xiaomi Mijia camera were newly purchased and the camera had been bought from AliExpress. It was running the firmware version 3.5.1_00.66.
The user tried accessing a video feed from his connected camera where instead of a local video feed, he was shown black and white stills from someone else’s home including a sleeping baby, an enclosed porch, and a man asleep in a chair.
“It’s technically possible this could be an elaborate hoax, but the video evidence is pretty damning. Whatever feed is trying to be accessed is clearly something that is actually integrated with Google Home/Assistant, and the fact that it’s intermittently corrupted and showing still images rather than the expected video is also pretty high-effort for a fake”, states Android Police.
Ever since the security bug in the camera came to light, Google has reportedly restricted Xiaomi integration on its devices while it’s sorting out the issue with Xiaomi. In another news, Smart home device company Wyze just confirmed that personal data gathered from millions of users were left exposed on the internet for weeks, including the email addresses and health data.
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