Furbo Dog Camera with Dog Nanny

Pet cams are an interesting connected device. They bring all the HD camera, two-way microphone, Cloud recording and smart alerts into your home, just like security cameras made by companies like Amazon, Google, and Simplisafe do. The question is, do they do as much as those companies to secure your data? And what about your privacy? These are all great questions.

From what we can tell, Furbo hasn’t had any major security breaches, which is good. They do offer Cloud storage with their Dog Nanny service and say they encrypt this content. So, it seems like those cute recordings of your pup sleeping are about as safe as most things in the Cloud (which means they’re probably safe, but there are no guarantees).

When it comes to Furbo’s privacy, we’re a little more concerned. Furbo doesn’t sell your personal information, which is good. However, Furbo’s privacy policy clearly states that when you set up your Furbo dog cam, they can “collect any audio, video or pictures you create, upload, save or share” and they may also “ collect video and audit information of individuals when they pass in front of the camera or speak when the Furbo Dog Camera is on.” All of that seems a bit concerning. Who is doing the auditing? And how are they processing these videos and recordings of you?

We do know the company may disclose your personal information to third parties for marketing purposes. And Furbo also “collects information about your publicly available social media profiles and any information obtained about your preferences and interests from third-party marketing partners.”

All in all, it seems Furbo collects a whole lot of personal information on you and your pup and shares it with third parties. That’s a concern for sure. What’s the worst that could happen, other than videos of you naked, playing with your pup being used for who knows what purpose? Well, there’s also the possibility you and your abusive partner could break up, they still have the Furbo app on their phone and have access to the camera and microphone. They could use that to spy on you, know when you are home, and stalk you. This is true with all security cameras, not just Furbo. So please, always be careful when bringing a connected camera into your home.