Wyze Labs Explained

Wyze Labs, Inc.
Company Type:Private
Area Served:United States
Founder:
  • Yun Zhang
  • Dongsheng Song
  • Dave Crosby
  • Elana Fishman
Location City:Seattle, Washington
Location Country:U.S.
Ceo:Yun Zhang
Products:
Num Employees:350

Wyze Labs, Inc. (formerly Wyzecam), also known as Wyze, is an American company based in Seattle, Washington, that specializes in smart home products and wireless cameras. It is a small start-up of former Amazon employees.[1] [2]

History

Wyze was incorporated on July 19, 2017, by four co-founders: CEO Yun Zhang, CPO Dongsheng Song, CMO Dave Crosby, and Elana Fishman.[3] [4] Wyze released their first product, the WyzeCam v1, on October 24, 2017. Shortly after, the Wyze Cam V2 was announced on February 18, and (due to a hardware defect) started shipping in early April of the same year.[5] On October 24, 2018, Wyze had sold 1 million units of the Wyze Cam.[6]   On January 31, 2019, Wyze announced a $20 million investment from Norwest Venture Partners.[7] In March 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit the world, Wyze was on the verge of shutting down. But the company managed to survive the pandemic by reducing the amount of money it originally wanted to raise from 50 million to 10 million, and by adding the Cam Plus subscription plan, among other things. At the end of 2022, Wyze announced 2023 as the “year of the camera”, and released three new cameras as of March 2, 2023[8]

Disputes and security concerns

In 2019 Sensormatic, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Johnson Controls, sued Wyze, alleging seven patent violations.[9] Wyze prevailed in the lawsuit, as of September 2020.[10] [11]

In December 2019, the company acknowledged that a server leak had exposed the details of roughly 2.4 million customers.[12] The company's response included logging all users out of their accounts, requiring all users to reauthenticate.[13]

In 2021, Xiaomi submitted a report to Amazon alleging that Wyze had infringed upon its 2019 "Autonomous Cleaning Device and Wind Path Structure of Same" robot vacuum patent.[14] On July 15, 2021, Wyze filed a lawsuit against Xiaomi in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, arguing that prior art exists and asking the court for a declaratory judgment that Xiaomi's 2019 robot vacuum patent is invalid.[15]

In 2022, security firm Bitdefender announced that Wyze had discontinued WyzeCam v1 because of a security vulnerability that Bitdefender had reported to Wyze three years before, which is an unusually long time for a vulnerability to go unreported to the public. Wyze did not make any public announcement about the vulnerability.[16]

On September 8, 2023, some users reported on Reddit that the web viewer was showing camera feeds that were not their own. A Wyze spokesperson said this was due to a web caching issue.[17]

In February 2024, about 13,000 Wyze home security customers were shown someone else’s home.[18]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: WyzeCam v2 Smart Home Security Camera Review. Gear Patrol. 24 July 2018. 2019-07-08. 2019-07-08. https://web.archive.org/web/20190708062255/https://gearpatrol.com/2018/07/24/wyzecam-v2-security-camera-review/. live.
  2. Web site: The Hidden Player Spurring a Wave of Cheap Consumer Devices. NYT. Farhad Manjoo. 6 December 2017. 20 July 2019. 8 July 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190708094001/https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/06/technology/cheap-consumer-devices-amazon.html. live.
  3. Web site: Swearingen. Jake. 2019-02-12. How Four Ex-Amazoners Made a Crazy-Good Wireless Cam for $20. 2021-05-21. Intelligencer. en-us.
  4. Web site: Bloomberg – Wyze Labs, Inc. – Company Profile. www.bloomberg.com. https://web.archive.org/web/20200926052721/https://www.bloomberg.com/profile/company/1689685D:US. 2020-09-26. 2019-07-21. live.
  5. Web site: 2019-02-20 . When did camera come out? . 2023-03-02 . Wyze Forum . en.
  6. Web site: Elana Fishman on LinkedIn: Wyze Cam - One Year Down, One Million Units Sold. . 2023-03-02 . www.linkedin.com . en.
  7. Web site: Smart home camera maker Wyze Labs raises $20M after startup finds success with low-cost WyzeCam. 2019-01-04. GeekWire. en-US. 2019-07-21. 2019-07-21. https://web.archive.org/web/20190721121130/https://www.geekwire.com/2019/smart-home-camera-maker-wyze-labs-raises-20m-startup-finds-success-low-cost-wyzecam/. live.
  8. Web site: Lardinois . Frederic . 2023-01-10 . Wyze launches its new $34 pan and tilt security camera . 2023-03-02 . TechCrunch . en-US.
  9. News: Honovich. John. 2019-08-21. JCI Sues Wyze. IPVM. 2021-07-16.
  10. Web site: Wyze Secures Complete Victory in Patent Infringement Lawsuit. 2021-07-17. www.cooley.com. en.
  11. Web site: Klingensmith. Rob. 2021-01-28. How Wyze Labs Withstood a Competitor's Patent Infringement Lawsuit - IP.com. 2021-07-17. IP.com - IP Innovation and Analytics. en-US.
  12. Web site: Cimpanu. Catalin. IoT vendor Wyze confirms server leak. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20191229074253/https://www.zdnet.com/article/iot-vendor-wyze-confirms-server-leak/. 2019-12-29. 2019-12-29. ZDNet. en.
  13. Web site: Wang. Jules. 2019-12-27. Privacy scare leads Wyze to unpair all devices from Google Assistant and Alexa, you'll need to add them back. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20191229142319/https://www.androidpolice.com/2019/12/27/privacy-scare-leads-wyze-to-unpair-all-devices-from-google-assistant-and-alexa-youll-need-to-add-them-back/. 2019-12-29. 2019-12-29. Android Police. en-US.
  14. News: Cheng . Isabella . 2021-07-20 . Wyze Sues Xiaomi . IPVM . 2021-07-21.
  15. Web site: 2021-07-20. Wyze sues Xiaomi and Roborock to invalidate robotic vacuum patent and save its Amazon listing. 2021-07-22. GeekWire. en-US.
  16. News: I'm done with Wyze . Sean . Hollister . The Verge . 2022-03-30 . 2022-03-30.
  17. Web site: Peters . Jay . 2023-09-09 . Your Wyze webcam might have let other owners peek into your house . 2023-09-10 . The Verge . en-US.
  18. Web site: Valinsky . Jordan . Wyze breach: About 13,000 home security customers were shown someone else's home CNN Business . CNN . en . 20 February 2024.

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