A company that sells baby monitors around the U.S. continues to face backlash for its ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Lorex Technology is a major manufacturer of those monitors, but was previously owned by a Chinese company.
The company faces several lawsuits from other states, but the most recent one comes from the Missouri Attorney General.
“The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world. Missouri will not allow the CCP to put its hand on our cradles,” Catherine Hanaway, Missouri’s Attorney General, said. “Parents place these cameras over cribs and in bedrooms to protect their children, not to invite a foreign adversary into their homes.”
New lawsuit
Lorex was previously owned by Dahua Technology, a massive Chinese manufacturer and global leader in video surveillance.
They were sold to a Taiwanese company, but Dahua remains a part of Lorex’s operations according to previous lawsuits and the current suit.
Hanaway also alleges Lorex maintains ties to the CCP. The Department of Defense designates them as a Chinese Military Company.
“In this case, the baby monitor company is sending data back to servers in China, and the lawsuit is that the company didn’t disclose that,” Bruce Schneier, fellow and lecturer at the Harvard Kennedy School and the Munk School, University of Toronto, told Straight Arrow.
Hanaway’s lawsuit seeks restitution of up to $1,000 for any person in Missouri who has had a Lorex camera over the last five years.
Her office believes that judgment could total $2 million.
“When sensitive information is shared in out-of-context ways, this is harmful because we don’t expect it, and we don’t actually always know all of the ways and all of the parties with which this data is shared,” Sara Geoghegan, director of the Consumer Privacy Program and senior counsel at the Electronic Privacy Informer Information Center, told Straight Arrow.
Missouri is just the latest state to sue Lorex over these connections.
Texas previously sued, and Nebraska also filed a suit.
Why?
No parent will feel great about the potential of the CCP having access to their baby monitors.
However, what can China’s ruling party actually do with that kind of video?
“Probably minimal,” Schneier said. “There’s no spying on babies. This is kind of weird, and so there’s some moral panic.”
There has been significant concerns over Chinese data collection in the U.S. in recent years.
The biggest example is TikTok, which the Trump administration forced a sale of to continue operating in the U.S. Tiktok was owned by Chinese corporation ByteDance but sold its U.S. operations to American investors.
Regardless, having your data or private video accessed by a foreign country will concern everyday Americans.
“I think it compares in that it’s all harmful exploitation of our personal information, and it harms all of it is harmful to us,” Geoghegan said.
Schneier said that this isn’t ideal, but it’s not the same as a major social company like TikTok.
“Why do I care?” he said. “A lot of times I do care. The TikTok algorithm actually is manipulative and it’s a propaganda tool.”
Potential consequences
Lorex does face financial consequences from a lawsuit like this.
Experts Straight Arrow spoke with said that while China and Dahua will almost certainly face no real consequences, the real impact from this will come stateside and help the elected leaders who’ve filed these suits.
“Maybe the best case is that the person becomes governor,” Schneier said.
When it comes to the data actually being used to target Americans, this appears different from what a social media company does.
“A lot of times information is collected about us and is disclosed out of context to third parties for targeted advertising purposes, so much of the targeted advertising ecosystem comes from our data being extracted and exploited,” Geoghegan said.
If there were laws in Missouri that made this illegal, it could become a bigger issue for Lorex.
However, there don’t appear to be.
What Missouri is relying on is the Missouri Merchandising Practices Act, which prohibits companies from deceiving consumers or concealing material facts about products.
“It’s hard to get worked up over this, but you know, the law is the law,” Schneier said.
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