Eufy paid users to stage thefts for AI training

Eufy, Anker's smart home camera brand, paid customers $2 per video clip to stage fake package thefts and car break-ins at their homes to improve its AI theft-detection technology. Over several months, more than 120 participants uploaded footage through Google Forms, helping Eufy collect over 40,000 clips of suspicious behavior for training its security algorithms. Unlike many tech companies that scrape data without clear consent, Eufy was transparent about what it was collecting and why, explicitly telling participants the footage would only be used for AI training.