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According to TechCrunch, Best Buy, Home Depot, and Lowes will no longer be selling security cameras from Lorex and Ezviz after the outlet reported on the brands’ parent companies’ involvement in supplying the Chinese government with surveillance tech.
According to the US government, both Dahua (Lorex’s owner) and Hikvision (Ezviz’s owner) stand implicated in human rights violations and abuses in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. They have reportedly helped supply surveillance equipment for monitoring ethnic minorities. One of the largest oppressed groups is the Uyghurs, a largely Muslim ethnic group the Chinese government is accused of putting in detention or reeducation camps, using as forced labor, and more.
The home security cameras and systems from Lorex and Ezviz aren’t banned from sale in the US, despite restrictions from the Department of Commerce on their parent companies. However, when TechCrunch reached out to retailers about Lorex and Ezviz’s links, Home Depot and Best Buy reportedly promised to stop working with the companies. Home Depot cited its “standards of ethical sourcing” as its reason for pulling the products from its online store, and while Lowes reportedly didn’t respond about the matter, Lorex’s products were pulled from its site.
Lorex security cameras are still available for purchase on Best Buy’s site
Best Buy told TechCrunch that it would be “discontinuing its relationship” with the companies. However, Lorex’s security cameras still seem to be available on its site (and certain models are even on sale). Searching Ezviz turns up no results. Home Depot and Lowes’ search systems don’t return anything for Lorex either; while the latter shows results for Ezviz, all the products are listed as unavailable.
Best Buy’s site still shows many Lorex products. (Screenshot taken on October 25th, at 1:40PM ET.)
Despite the US government saying that China was committing genocide against Uyghurs, a report from The Dispatch says that the country didn’t admit a single refugee from the minority group between October 2020 and September 2021. The report cites difficulties escaping China due to checkpoints and video surveillance, a maze of red tape, and “lack of urgency” when granting asylum as reasons for the shortage of admissions.
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