Earlier this 12 months, Anker, the Chinese language firm that makes Eufy safety cameras, supplied its customers cash in trade for movies of bundle and automotive thefts.
The favored internet-connected safety digital camera maker mentioned it could pay its prospects $2 per video to coach its AI programs to assist higher detect thieves who steal automobiles 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 corporate wrote on its web site.
“You can even create events by pretending to be a thief and donate those events,” the web site 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 additionally 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 reveals that firms are prepared to pay to get customers’ knowledge they suppose could be helpful to coach their AI fashions. Whereas this offers some customers the power to get worth out of their very own knowledge, there are safety and privateness dangers concerned.
Living proof: Final week, TechCrunch discovered that Neon, a viral calling app that supplied cash to customers prepared to share recordings and transcripts of their calls, had a safety flaw that allowed customers to entry another consumer’s knowledge. After being alerted of the safety lapse, Neon went offline.
Tons of of hundreds of movies ‘donated’ to coach AI
Eufy’s marketing campaign providing $2 per video for theft movies ran from December 18, 2024, to February 25, 2025. Greater than 120 customers responded on the marketing campaign’s announcement web page saying they participated in it, in accordance with feedback posted by customers there.
The corporate’s purpose was to gather 20,000 movies every of bundle thefts and of “pulling car doors.” Eufy customers might take part by filling out a Google Kind the place they might add movies and their PayPal account for fee.
Eufy didn’t reply to TechCrunch’s requests for remark and our questions, reminiscent of what number of customers participated within the marketing campaign, how a lot cash it paid these customers, what number of movies the corporate collected, and whether or not the corporate deleted the collected movies after coaching its AI programs.
Since then, Eufy has related campaigns aimed toward incentivizing its prospects to ship in movies to coach their AI.
As of the time of publication, via one other in-app marketing campaign that Eufy calls the Video Donation Program to enhance its AI programs, Eufy additionally presents customers rewards that vary from an “Apprentice Medal,” which seems to easily be a badge subsequent to the consumer’s identify within the app, to presents reminiscent of cameras or present playing cards.
Eufy is barely asking for movies involving people for this marketing campaign.
The Eufy app additionally reveals an “Honor Wall” that ranks customers who’ve donated essentially the most video occasions. The chief of the rating has donated 201,531 movies, in accordance with the app.
Within the app’s web page for the donation program, Eufy clarifies that “donated videos are only used for Al training and improvement. Eufy will not provide the video to third parties.”
Eufy additionally asks customers to donate movies recorded with the corporate’s child screens. The help web page detailing the steps to share the movies doesn’t point out any cash reward for these movies.
Eufy didn’t reply when requested about this explicit initiative.
There are causes to be uncertain of Eufy’s commitments to guard customers’ privateness. In 2023, The Verge revealed that the corporate tried to cowl up that customers’ digital camera streams, which the corporate marketed as end-to-end encrypted, had been unencrypted when accessed via its net portal.
After a back-and-forth with the tech information website, Anker admitted it misled customers and promised to repair the difficulty.
This text was initially printed on October 1.
