Arlo Smart Home Security
Arlo Technologies · Camera / Doorbell
✓ Reviewed
Index
Arlo cameras and video doorbells continuously capture video and two-way audio of your home's exterior and interior, storing clips in Arlo's cloud tied to a required account (IP address, device IDs, Wi-Fi network name, account/payment data, and usage telemetry). Arlo publishes a Privacy Pledge saying it does not sell personal data for marketing, but its own notice concedes it shares identifiers (device ID, cookie ID, IP) and network-activity data with advertisers, ad networks, analytics providers and social networks through tracking technologies that some U.S. state laws classify as 'selling' or 'sharing.'
Why this rating
Policy: audio/video collection (-15) and sharing of device identifiers/IP with ad networks and analytics that state privacy law treats as 'sharing/selling' (-15), plus unilateral-change, forced-arbitration and loose law-enforcement disclosure clauses; partially offset by a public Privacy Pledge / data-minimization stance and optional local (base-station/SD) storage. Evidence: no confirmed breach or regulatory action, but independent scrutiny is limited to a single mixed civil-society review, and a pending BIPA class action (Tibbs v. Arlo Technologies, N.D. Cal.) over 'Person Detection' facial-scanning survived a motion to dismiss in 2024 - an unadjudicated concern that keeps the evidence axis from scoring higher.
What it is
- Microphone
- Camera
- Requires a cloud account
- Manufacturer
- Arlo Technologies
- Category
- Camera / Doorbell
- Model years
- 2018-present
- Market status
- Current
- Companion app
- Arlo Secure
The evidence 1
Independent research, regulatory action, lawsuits, breaches and journalism about this device — the "what actually happens" axis. Each links to its source.
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Mozilla's *Privacy Not Included team found Arlo meets its Minimum Security Standards but can collect and share a fair amount of user data, including identifiers used for advertising.
Why it matters here: Independent civil-society assessment of this specific product line's data-collection and sharing practices.
Descriptive, cited, not legal advice; ratings are versioned and corrections create a new version. Data from the IoT Info Grabber DB research project, CC BY-SA 4.0.