(credit: Eufy)

Eufy's home security products are on sale, with several discounts across a wide array of smart home accessories, including door locks, cameras, and doorbells. One of my favorite items from the company is a smart door lock that combines three products in one, and it's now discounted by 15 percent.

The Eufy Security S330 integrates a fingerprint keyless entry door lock, a smart lock that can be accessed via your phone or keypad, and an integrated smart doorbell with a chime and camera to detect visitors at your front door. The S330 isn't at the lowest price we've ever seen, but it still knocks $53 off the cost of this all-in-one front door smart home accessory. If you don't need a three-in-one lock, Eufy also sells standalone smart deadbolts, doorbells, and cameras at various prices.

Eufy Security products for your front door

• Eufy Security S330 Smart Video Lock for $297 (was $350) at Amazon : Eufy's S330 is more than just a smart deadbolt for your home. This Wi-Fi-connected lock integrates a fingerprint reader for easy access, a smart doorbell with a 2K camera to monitor your front entryway, and a keypad with chime. A traditional key can also be used to access your home. One of the nicest things about Eufy compared to some competitors is that no subscription is required to access these smart features, including video recording and live feeds. You can store your video footage locally on a memory card in the included doorbell chime.
• Eufy Security C210 Smart Lock for $100 after coupon (was $140) at Amazon : If you don't need all the bells and whistles of the Eufy Security S33 and would prefer a simpler smart lock, the C210 is a deadbolt with a keypad on the front, a key slot for traditional access, and Wi-Fi connectivity that eliminates the need for a hub or bridge. Eufy promises access to your home in five different ways, including through the Eufy Security app, the keypad or a physical key, your Apple Watch, or Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant.
• Eufy Security Dual Camera Video Doorbell for $150 after coupon (was $200) at Amazon : Eufy's Dual Camera Video Doorbell sets itself apart from the competition with its dual-camera setup designed to deter porch pirates. This model comes with a traditional forward-facing 2K camera to check for visitors and alert you when someone is at the door, but it also includes a bottom-mounted camera that's ideally placed to monitor packages and notify you if you have a delivery. It's perfect for online shoppers.
• Eufy Security Video Doorbell (Battery) for $80 after coupon (was $100) at Amazon : For those who prefer simplicity, this video doorbell is battery operated, meaning you won't have to mess with wiring inside your home, and it comes with an FHD 1080p resolution camera. While affordable, the Eufy Security Video Doorbell comes with AI-driven features that will detect if there's a human presence at your door. Eufy also includes a wireless chime in the package.

Eufy Security cameras and other smart accessories

Eufy's camera footage is stored locally, but with the right URL, you can also watch it from anywhere, unencrypted. It's complicated.

If you already have a working front door security system, you may want to consider Eufy's other smart home security products, which are also on sale.

Enlarge / Anker's Eufy division has said its web portal was not designed for end-to-end encryption and could allow outside access with the right URL. (credit: Eufy)

After two months of arguing back and forth with critics about how so many aspects of its "No clouds" security cameras could be accessed online by security researchers, Anker smart home division Eufy has provided a lengthy explanation and promises to do better.

In multiple responses to The Verge , which has repeatedly called out Eufy for failing to address key aspects of its security model, Eufy has plainly stated that video streams produced by its cameras could be accessed, unencrypted, through the Eufy web portal, despite messaging and marketing that suggested otherwise. Eufy also stated it would bring in penetration testers, commission an independent security researcher's report, create a bug bounty program, and better detail its security protocols.

Prior to late November 2022, Eufy had enjoyed a distinguished place among smart home security providers. For those willing to trust any company with video feeds and other home data, Eufy marketed itself as offering "No Clouds or Costs," with encrypted feeds streamed only to local storage.

Enlarge / Eufy's security arm has publicly addressed some of the most important claims about the company's local-focused systems, but those who bought into the "no clouds" claims may not be fully assured. (credit: Eufy)

Eufy, the Anker brand that positioned its security cameras as prioritizing "local storage" and "No clouds," has issued a statement in response to recent findings by security researchers and tech news sites. Eufy admits it could do better but also leaves some issues unaddressed.

In a thread titled "Re: Recent security claims against eufy Security," "eufy_official" writes to its "Security Cutomers and Partners." Eufy is "taking a new approach to home security," the company writes, designed to operate locally and "wherever possible" to avoid cloud servers. Video footage, facial recognition, and identity biometrics are managed on devices—"Not the cloud."

This reiteration comes after questions have been raised a few times in the past weeks about Eufy's cloud policies. A British security researcher found in late October that phone alerts sent from Eufy were stored on a cloud server, seemingly unencrypted , with face identification data included. Another firm at that time quickly summarized two years of findings on Eufy security , noting similar unencrypted file transfers.

Enlarge / Eufy's camera footage is stored locally, but with the right URL, you can also watch it from anywhere, unencrypted. It's complicated.

When security researchers found that Eufy's supposedly cloud-free cameras were uploading thumbnails with facial data to cloud servers , Eufy's response was that it was a misunderstanding, a failure to disclose an aspect of its mobile notification system to customers.

It seems there's more understanding now, and it's not good.

Eufy didn't respond to other claims from security researcher Paul Moore and others, including that one could stream the feed from a Eufy camera in VLC Media Player , if you had the right URL. Last night, The Verge, working with the security researcher "Wasabi" who first tweeted the problem , confirmed it could access Eufy camera streams, encryption-free , through a Eufy server URL.

Enlarge / Anker's cameras store their footage on a local base. Thumbnail images of faces, however, were uploaded to cloud servers. (credit: Eufy)

Eufy, a smart home brand of tech accessory firm Anker, had become popular among some privacy-minded security camera buyers. Its doorbell camera and other devices proudly proclaimed having " No Clouds or Costs ," and that "no one has access to your data but you."

That's why security consultant and researcher Paul Moore's string of tweets and videos, demonstrating that Eufy cameras were uploading name-tagged thumbnail images to cloud servers to alert owners' phones, likely unencrypted, stung smart home and security enthusiasts so hard this week.

Moore , based in the UK, started asking Eufy rhetorical questions about its practices on Twitter starting November 21. "Why is my 'local storage" #doorbellDual storing every face, without encryption, to your servers? Why can I stream my camera without #authentication?!" Moore also posted lines from " source code & API responses " that suggested a very weak AES key was being used to encrypt video footage.