If you want a smart camera for your home, chances are you’ll be looking for it on Amazon, where some brands have skyrocketed in popularity in recent years. Names like Eufy or Arlo have gone from unknowns to conquering houses.
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Unfortunately, it is precisely these brands that have been the subject of the most controversy in recent months. We’ve already talked about Eufy and the security flaws he didn’t want to admit to, and now it’s Arlo’s turn (formerly part of Netgear), for another reason.
Some Arlo cameras are discontinued
In an email to customers, Arlo announced a policy change in its support department (accessible in this PDF), which it calls “End-of-Life” and will affect cameras that are more than four years old. lifespan; thereafter they will lose all support and not only will they no longer receive updates, but they will also lose access to many of the features they currently have.
When an Arlo camera responds to four years after its market launch, you will lose access to free cloud storage, which saves the last seven days of recordings accessible from the official app; it was one of the main reasons to buy an Arlo camera. The camera will also stop sending us emails with event notifications.
Also, an unsupported camera will no longer receive firmware updates, so if a security vulnerability is discovered, it will not be corrected and potentially we would have a camera accessible to attackers. Finally, Arlo will stop manufacturing replacement parts for the device.
One of the Arlo cameras affected by the new policy
Cameras discontinued by Arlo will not completely stop working. We’ll be able to continue to access video from cameras from the app, receive motion notifications on your mobile and record videos locally using a compatible device. But the company warns that in the future it could lose access to more features, as it won’t receive the updates that the rest of the range will receive.
The first two models affected are the Arlo VMC3030 Gen 3 and the Arlo VMC4030 Pro; both are already over four years old and will be discontinued in April this year. Additionally, the company announced that in January 2024 it will be the turn of more models, although it promised to notify affected users 90 days in advance.
However, these users won’t have many options beyond buying a new camera. The company also wants to encourage the purchase of its 30-day cloud storage subscription service, which will still be compatible with older cameras (even if they’ve lost the free 7-day storage).
