Recently, Xiaomi’s smart camera has been involved in a privacy controversy. A female user from Hebei province claimed that she heard a strange man’s voice coming from the Xiaomi surveillance video installed in her bedroom. Xiaomi responded that they have tested the device in question and everything is functioning normally.
On September 11th, the woman from Hebei posted a video saying that she installed a Xiaomi smart camera in her bedroom to monitor her child’s condition. Suddenly, the Xiaomi smart camera 2 PTZ version transmitted a strange man’s voice: “Please adjust this” and “This is fine.”
The user expressed, “I am a loyal Xiaomi fan, but today hearing a strange man’s voice from the camera has made me very scared. I originally installed the camera to conveniently monitor my child, never did I expect Xiaomi staff to be able to watch at will. It seems that nothing can be trusted too much. I didn’t believe it when others had similar experiences before, but today I recorded it to share with everyone. It looks like when it comes to cameras, it’s better to turn them off during private moments.”
On September 13th, a spokesperson from Xiaomi stated in an official Weibo post that according to the visit record screenshot provided by the user, there was no unauthorized access during the corresponding period. Their smart cameras and related network services were not subjected to any hacking attacks or unauthorized visits. The company has retrieved the device in question for testing, confirming that the device is in normal working condition. They also invited a third-party authentication organization to conduct appraisal tests on the product.
Xiaomi also mentioned that the camera has an echo cancellation feature, so sounds emitted by the speaker will be filtered out by the echo cancellation algorithm. If the sound is emitted by the camera itself, it will not be recorded in the monitoring video playback.
On September 14th, the Hebei user posted another video saying that the original intention of installing the camera in the bedroom was to take care of her child. After the incident, Xiaomi contacted her and sent the camera back to the manufacturer. She said, “This is not a problem that can be solved by repairs alone, but I didn’t make it difficult for them, so I cooperatively sent the camera back.”
The user mentioned, “The previous video was not intended to slander Xiaomi, just simply wanted to share that there might be privacy leaks with the camera. Many cameras may have these vulnerabilities, reminding everyone to be more cautious when using them, it’s not necessary to keep them on 24/7.”
According to Xiaomi’s official flagship store, the Xiaomi Smart Camera 2 PTZ version is currently priced at 167 yuan. The camera can rotate horizontally by 360 degrees, vertically by 106 degrees, and it can achieve local human detection, AI face recognition, and AI cry detection. According to shopping reviews, after installing the product, parents can check on their child at home from their phones, and parents can also communicate with their child using the device.
However, this incident has sparked widespread discussion on the privacy and security of smart home products. Some users believe that smart cameras have privacy vulnerabilities, which can lead to outsiders accessing images from inside the household.
In early January 2020, Reddit user Dio-V exposed serious privacy vulnerabilities of Xiaomi’s Mi Home Smart Camera. When the user connected the camera to Google Nest Hub, they accidentally saw images of another user’s interior space, including scenes of a baby sleeping in a crib. Google promptly disabled the Xiaomi camera and cut off its access rights.