Unauthorized Release of Video

[Lucylu7]

Has anyone experienced the issue of an unauthorized use of a video from their Arlo camera?

I just discovered a video on a meme account that came from our doorbell camera and we never released it. I’m now feeling uneasy thinking of all the ways it could’ve leaked. Have there been any privacy issues with Arlo?

[StephenB]

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@Lucylu7 wrote:

I just discovered a video on a meme account that came from our doorbell camera and we never released it. I’m now feeling uneasy thinking of all the ways it could’ve leaked. Have there been any privacy issues with Arlo?

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The simplest explanation (not necessarily the correct one) is that someone who was already authorized to download the videos decided to share this one.  

Not sure if you can contact the owner of the meme site, but if you can then you should request that the video be taken down.  If they were to refuse for some reason, you could try contacting the police.  It would also make sense to let Arlo support know ( perhaps @JamesC will want to follow up with you on that).

I would definitely change the account password.   It would be wise to change passwords used to access your PCs (and cloud services for your PCs and phones like iCloud, OneDrive, etc) - along with the password(s) of your email account(s).  You might also run malware scans on your PCs using MalwareBytes or a similar tool.

If you use the friend account feature, you should instruct the friend(s) to change their password(s) also. Reconsider if the friend(s) actually need access, and revoke it if they don't.

FWIW, I've never seen a case posted here where the cameras were hacked (or where a security problem with the Arlo Cloud resulted in leaked video).  Some other possibilities are below.

(1) If the doorbell is connected via a base station with local storage attached, then anyone with physical access to the base could have removed the storage and copied the video(s) stored on it. 

(2) There almost certainly have been cases over the years where weak account passwords have allowed someone malicious to log into the account - although now that two-factor verification is required, you should have been notified when that person logged in. 

(3) If you use the friend account feature, then of course someone could similarly have accessed the video via the friend account - and in that case you wouldn't have been notified (but the friend would have been).   

(4) If you (or someone in a "friend" account) downloaded the video to their own PC or phone, then it could have been leaked from that device (or it's associated cloud storage - onedrive, icloud, etc). 

[Lucylu7]

This is truly helpful. Thank you. I’ve been so anxious about this. Fortunately the meme site did take the video down. I just wish I knew how this leak occurred. We don’t have the friends account feature and we always try to use complex passwords for everything. But I will be changing my passwords again to EVERYTHING. And running a malware scan too.

Thank you again for the information you provided!