Xiaomi launched its Home Security Camera earlier this year which supports 1080p recording with AI motion detection, infrared night vision, and more. While there has been a rise in the use and adoption of home security cameras and other smart home devices recently, there are issues related to privacy and security. On similar lines, today, a Xiaomi Security Camera displayed pictures from other cameras on a user’s Google Nest Hub and this issue has affected a group of users.
A Reddit user reported that his Xiaomi Security Camera started displaying still images from other cameras on his Google Nest Hub and more specifically, it displayed images of a man sleeping in a chair. The user also reported that both the Nest Hub and the Xiaomi Home Security Camera were new and purchased from AliExpress. It was running on the firmware version 3.5.1_00.66.
Following the incident, Google disabled Xiaomi integrations on their devices and to remind you, users can link the Xiaomi Home Security Camera to a Google account for access with Nest devices through the Mi Home application.
After Google disabled Xiaomi integrations, Xiaomi in a statement said that they have fixed the issue that plagued a group of users and this issue occurred because of a cache update that was rolled out and designed to improve the streaming quality of the camera. Xiaomi also confirmed that the cache update resulted in displaying images when the user had the camera and the display under poor network conditions. Also, the company confirmed that only 1044 users were with such integrations and only a “few” with extremely poor network conditions might be affected.
According to Xiaomi, it has communicated with Google and fixed the issue, and has also suspended this service.
Google in a statement said:
We’re aware of the issue and are in contact with Xiaomi to work on a fix. In the meantime, we’re disabling Xiaomi integrations on our devices.
Xiaomi in a statement said:
Xiaomi has always prioritized our users’ privacy and information security. We are aware there was an issue of receiving stills while connecting Mi Home Security Camera Basic 1080p on Google Home hub. We apologize for the inconvenience this has caused to our users.
Our team has since acted immediately to solve the issue and it is now fixed. Upon investigation, we have found out the issue was caused by a cache update on December 26, 2019, which was designed to improve camera streaming quality. This has only happened in extremely rare conditions. In this case, it happened during the integration between Mi Home Security Camera Basic 1080p and the Google Home Hub with a display screen under poor network conditions.
We have also found 1044 users were with such integrations and only a few with extremely poor network conditions might be affected. This issue will not happen if the camera is linked to the Xiaomi’s Mi Home app.
Xiaomi has communicated and fixed this issue with Google, and has also suspended this service until the root cause has been completely solved, to ensure that such issues will not happen again.