Arlo may not make friends with its new “end-of-life” policy, which will remove some essential functions from its older security cameras. A fine example of planned obsolescence!
Certainly, the owners of surveillance cameras have their share of unpleasant surprises at the moment! While some found that their Anker Eufy cameras were saving captured videos to the cloud – on the Internet – without encryption or authentication, making them accessible to third parties, some customers of Arlo Technologies, a home automation company specializing in wireless security cameras, emailed – content is also available at the official website – telling them that their “end of life” products would see their functions reduced, starting in April 2023. Indeed, with its new policy concerning the supports of its products over time, the firm will stop putting its cameras at day four years after they end production, making them all virtually obsolete – customers will be notified 90 days before the deadline.
To from there, “Certain aspects of the Arlo product may no longer be sold, enhanced, maintained, serviced, or supported” and some functions will even disappear, such as email notifications, emergency calls (in the United States) and free storage of data in the cloud for seven days – yet one of the main selling points of the brand, which is even prominently displayed on the packaging. “Arlo products may reach the end of their life cycle for a number of reasons, including changing market demand, technological innovation, development of alternative and more efficient software platforms, and/or improvements product and cloud security”, says the company in an attempt to justify this decision. Not sure everyone is convinced…
Arlo cameras: customers invited to buy new products
The first devices affected by this new end-of-life policy are the Generation 3 (VMC3030) and Pro (VMC4030) cameras, from 1er April 2023. They will be followed by the Arlo Baby (ABC1000), Pro 2 (VMC4030P), Q (VMC3040), Q+ (VMC3040S), Arlo Lights (ALS1101) and Audio Doorbell (AAD1001) from 1er January 2024. To From these dates, the cameras can continue to be used to stream live video and store it locally with a compatible Arlo station. Well, that’s on paper. Arlo says that while download and cloud storage services will become unavailable, live access should remain in place, as should local video recording. Problem: the cameras of the first generations do not allow local recording. And in fact, surveillance cameras without the possibility of recording lose much of their interest…
It remains to be seen if there will be any malfunctions after the end of life date, which would definitely settle the question of whether to keep the cameras anyway or whether to absolutely buy new ones. Still, they will no longer have security or bug updates. And that’s without taking into account the absence of spare parts, as well as the deletion of alerts by e-mail or via notifications on the application – practical for knowing if there is an intruder at home!
This barely disguised planned obsolescence aims to push users into overconsumption, at a time when it is more necessary than ever to reduce our electronic waste by keeping our devices as long as possible – a device that pollutes less is a device which lasts a long time. Moreover, Arlo announces that it will be able to offer, according to its desires, offers, discounts or purchase coupons in order to “encourage” to migrate to more recent devices. A policy that could well turn against him and push consumers to change their ecosystem. Unlike smartphones, which are changed approximately every four years, cameras are products that you install at home and expect to keep for a long time…