Your cute pet camera may hide a troubling secret

Privacy Please is an ongoing series exploring the ways privacy is violated in the modern world, and what can be done about it.

The secret life of pets is a thing of the past. And, if they’re not careful, the secret life of pet owners will follow suit.

The pet accessory business is a booming one, predicted to reach $46 billion by 2026. A growing part of that market is dog and cat cameras: remotely accessible webcams designed to monitor, and sometimes interact with, pets left at home. Think of pet cams as baby monitors, but for furry friends.

But as with so many internet-of-things devices, pet cameras come with their own privacy and security risks.

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Pet cameras, after all, are by their very nature meant to be placed inside of the home. According to Matthew Guariglia, a policy analyst with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, that should give potential owners pause.

“Think about what video and audio that device would capture in a day, and think about what is the worst case scenario if somebody else got their hands on it,” he said. “If it starts changing your life, if you start feeling like you don’t have privacy in your own home and you’re leaving your living room to have certain conversations, that’s a problem.”

“Think about what video and audio that device would capture in a day…”

One popular pet camera manufacturer, Petcube, bills its products as the “best home cameras designed for pet parents” — offering owners the ability to speak to, and dispense treats for, homebound canines and kittens. “Watch your pet live with a sharp 1080p HD video, night vision,” promises the Petcube Bites 2 Lite. “Get full room coverage with 160° view. For details, see up close with 8x digital zoom.”

The technology lets users zoom in on cute things like a dog napping at the foot of a bed. But it also opens up some concerning possibilities.

“These devices have a lot of scary implications for survivors of domestic violence and stalking,” explained Guariglia. “If you break up with a significant other and they retain access to a microphone and camera inside your house, be mindful and change your information.”

Tap to toss.
Credit: screenshot: Petcube

Indeed, while Guariglia spends his professional time considering the privacy implications of new technologies and laws, you don’t need to be an expert to understand the potential negative consequences of an internet-connected home camera in the wrong hands. That’s because, unfortunately, there are plenty of real-world examples.

In January of 2021, a former ADT employee pleaded guilty to watching customers have sex through their home security cameras. He was able to do this for years, without being caught.

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Makers of pet cameras do invest in privacy and security, although to different degrees. Andrey Klen, Petcube’s co-founder and CMO, explained over email some of the steps his company takes to secure customers’ video feeds.

“Engineers are following the vulnerability reports and new versions of the software components used in our products, and they are updated regularly,” he wrote. “Petcube is also performing planned security audits by the independent third-party company with extensive expertise in the domain. Generally we do our best to protect our users security and privacy and constantly look for ways to improve these practices.”

Likewise, when reached for comment, the makers of Pawbo replied that their video is encrypted.

To be clear, that these companies are thinking about customer security and privacy is a good thing and should be celebrated. It does not, however, mean there’s no cause for concern.

Oh, hi there.
Credit: screenshot: pawbo

Amazon, which owns Ring, has financial resources to invest in security that dwarf many of its competitors. And yet, even Ring customers have had their share of privacy scares. In 2020, the company was hit with a class action lawsuit alleging Ring failed to take basic security precautions. That followed a series of hacks wherein creeps gained access to families’ Ring cameras, and in at least one case reportedly used that access to yell racial slurs at an 8-year-old child.

The threat isn’t only an external one. The same year, Ring admitted that its employees had tried to watch customers’ video feeds.

Whether or not employees can access customers’ pet cams is an important question, and Guariglia explained that it’s not out of the realm of possibility.

“If your footage is sitting unencrypted on a cloud controlled by a company, theoretically and in many instances practically, the companies have been able to access that historic footage and could maybe even be able to open up a livestream view.”

Petcube’s Klen assured Mashable that his company take precautions to prevent this very thing.

“There’s no way for a Petcube employee to get any data without a user consent, it is protected by a unique token, hosted on a server with restricted access.”

But when it comes to explaining what steps companies take to protect their customers’ privacy, not all pet cam manufacturers are created equal.

We asked Furbo, which sells interactive dog cameras for $169, what precautions it takes to ensure Furbo employees do not access customer videos. We received no response.

Good doggie.
Credit: Furbo

It’s worth emphasizing that people do find real value in being able to remotely check up on their pets.

Afton Moss co-owns the San Francisco dog training and care business Wild Wolves, and uses a Furbo to keep eyes on her Golden Lab Viago (yes, named after that Viago). Over the phone, she explained that the remotely accessible camera gives her peace of mind when she’s away from home.

“I like it because I get alerts for when Viago, or any of the dogs I am watching, are barking,” she explained. “I can look in whenever I want, and I can also talk to [Viago via the built-in speaker].”

When asked if she had any privacy concerns related to having a pet camera in her home, she spoke more of the reassurance the camera provided her and the added safety it meant for her dog.

“I don’t think about [the camera], and I know maybe I should but it’s not something that bothers me that much,” she noted.

Like with most modern technology, pet cameras come with a set of tradeoffs: In this case, added security in exchange for the potential of reduced privacy. Being aware of those tradeoffs means pet cam owners can better protect themselves against possible harms — harms that are not theoretical.

Because even if a pet cam manufacturer does everything right and protects a customer’s account in all the right ways, things can still go wrong. Take, for instance, the threat of credential stuffing. It’s a practice that involves hackers trying combinations of passwords and email addresses from data breaches in the hopes that a victim reused a password. This rather prosaic attack takes on a particularly nasty color when, instead of Dunkin’ loyalty points, hackers score access to live video from inside people’s homes.

Then there’s the data collected by the manufacturers themselves. Even if employees aren’t improperly accessing video feeds, metadata is incredibly revealing, and powerful, stuff.

“You wouldn’t normally check up on your pet through a camera if you were in the house,” observed Guariglia. “So, just by knowing when you’re logging in and when you’re checking in, one could theoretically figure out when you’re home and when you’re not home.”

And what does the camera’s privacy policy allow? While each company’s terms of service vary, according to the Furbo privacy policy, the answer can be quite a lot.

“When you set up the Furbo Dog Camera, we collect any audio, video or pictures you create, upload, save or share through our Services (the ‘Content’),” it reads in part. “We may also collect video and audit information of individuals when they pass in front of the camera or speak when the Furbo Dog Camera is on.”

In addition, the Furbo privacy policy says the company collects customers’ geolocation data and info about their social media profiles (among many other seemingly unnecessary details). In 2020, Mozilla found that Furbo may use customers’ videos to test artificial intelligence algorithms.

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“It’s always important to read the terms of service despite how painful it is,” advised Guariglia. “One of the worst case scenarios in my mind is you saying in front of your dog feeder and dog camera, ‘Oh we really have to book that flight to Chicago,’ and suddenly you’re seeing targeted ads for a flight to Chicago.”

Pet cameras are advertised as a way to keep constant tabs on cuddly family members, so reassurance is always just a button push away. Before purchasing or using one, it’s worth considering if that reassurance comes at the cost of your privacy.