Is your baby, doorbell or security cam spying for China? Florida’s top cop wants to know

Florida’s top law enforcement official has issued a subpoena to Lorex Corp., a top maker of baby monitors, security and doorbell cameras, demanding documents and information about its corporate structure, whether it has any ties to Chinese Communist firms and whether Americans' data or privacy can be breached. Those documents could provide evidence of illegal activity.

Attorney General James Uthmeier’s office told Just the News he believes Lorex, though North American-based, has imported large swaths of equipment from a Chinese manufacturer banned from the United States over alleged human rights abuses and national security risks.

A spokesperson for Lorex did not immediately respond to a written request for comment sent via email to its corporate public relations account.

Probe into whether products are relabeled from black-listed maker

“Lorex Corporation is importing millions of devices from CCP-controlled Dahua, which has been banned in the United States for human rights abuses and national security risks,” the office said in a statement to Just the News. “AG Uthmeier must discover whether Lorex is selling re-labeled Dahua products which would introduce a range of cybersecurity vulnerabilities that would give the CCP a direct line into the homes and private lives of millions of Floridians.”

Dahua, a Chinese technology company, acquired the Canadian-based Lorex in 2018 but sold it to Taiwan-based Skywatch nearly three years ago after Dahua was blacklisted in the United States.

The Pentagon in 2022 listed Dahua as one of 13 companies doing business with the Chinese military and banned its products in the United States. Earlier, the Commerce Department in 2020 identified Dahua as one of several Chinese firms involved in human rights abuses with alleged slave labor involving Uighur minorities.

In 2023, the Australian government expressed alarm when it found about 1,000 security cameras in its various offices tied to Dahua and another Chinese-tied firm, ordering a sweeping review of all security equipment in its government facilities.

The Florida attorney general’s subpoena was issued Friday, and shortly afterwards, Uthmeier put out a statement on X advising Florida consumers about his actions and possible vulnerabilities in Lorex products they may own.

“What consumers do not know is that data might be shared with the Chinese military,” he said. “Imagine that. Footage of your baby in a crib going to the Chinese government. This is unacceptable. It is a national security issue, and it will not be tolerated.”

The attorney general’s subpoena seeks documents and information related to Lorex’s ownership and corporate structure, any contracts with third parties involved in manufacturing, firmware, mobile apps, and software updates; and the origins of components used in the company’s products sold in Florida. 

The Florida A.G. is also seeking evidence identifying where software updates originate, the firms or people with source-code access for camera firmware, the company’s cloud platform providers and data center locations and any known security vulnerabilities, breaches, or investigations.

An ongoing battle

China's activity has been under the watchful eye not just of states like Florida, but on the federal level as well.

The House Homeland Security Committee said in February that "In Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s confirmation hearing, she detailed the CCP’s 'extremely dangerous' and robust cyber-espionage campaigns, highlighting how China works to access Americans’ private information, in part, for the opportunity to 'control our critical infrastructure.'” 

That same month, ABC News reported that DeepSeek, the popular artificial intelligence tool, has code hidden in its programming with the built-in capability to send user data directly to the Chinese government, experts told ABC. Two years ago, CNN reported that a former employee of ByteDance, TikTok’s Beijing-based parent company, outlined claims that the Chinese Communist Party accessed the data of TikTok users on a world-wide scale, often for political purposes. TikTok's status in the US remains uncertain, as a ban was slated to take effect but has been postponed multiple times by President Trump. 

In June, Sen. Rick Scott, R., Fla., introduced the Drones for America Act to ban Chinese-made drones and components in the United States, after reports that these drones likely allow CCP-related entities to access images and data collected by unsuspecting users. The legislation would implement a ban on all Chinese-manufactured drone systems by January 1, 2028 and Chinese-manufactured components by January 1, 2031, and implement a gradually-increasing tariff on these items until full bans are in effect to phase them out of the market. The bill is still in committee.

Uthmeier is urging other state attorneys general and the Trump administration to join his inquiry to better protect consumers nationally.

“The use of surveillance equipment produced by CCP-linked companies is a direct threat to the privacy of every American who uses such products, and is an unacceptable national security risk,” his office told Just the News. “It’s time for state and federal law enforcement across the country to follow Uthmeier's lead and peel back the CCP ties of sensitive surveillance technologies that are flooding our country.”