The Action and Kruidvat prove that a smart home does not have to be expensive. At these stores you can buy smart doorbells and cameras for a fraction of the normal price. But is it also smart to buy an Action doorbell?
Want to buy a smart doorbell from Action?
The Action has a very wide range and since 2020 you can also purchase doorbells from the budget chain. For 37.95 you get a smart Action doorbell. This not only lets you know that someone is at the door, but thanks to the built-in Full HD camera you can also see them. With the microphone you can also talk remotely with, for example, the parcel deliverer or neighbor.
The popularity of smart homes, which has certainly been boosted by the corona crisis, has also not escaped Kruidvat. The drugstore even sells two types of doorbells for 50 euros each.
The price is therefore the most important plus of these budget doorbells. Competitive models from, for example, Google or Amazon cost tens to hundreds of euros more. Yet the question is whether it is wise to buy a Kruidvat or Action doorbell.
The party behind the Action doorbell
The shops do not make the doorbells themselves. In reality, they are products from Tuya, a Chinese company that makes all kinds of smart home gear for other companies.
Parties such as Action and Kruidvat can turn to Tuya for so-called white labelstuff. This means that Tuya makes the – in this case – smart doorbells, but Action of Kruidvat puts their own label on them.
They can also ‘borrow’ the Tuya app and associated infrastructure for their ‘own’ smart home products. This is advantageous for stores like the Action, because they do not have to develop their own doorbells and cameras to still put them on the shelves. Tuya stuff is now sold by thousands of ‘manufacturers’ and as a consumer you do not immediately notice this.
Consider the risks
Nevertheless, it is wise to pay attention. Tuya’s privacy policy is a point of attention. The LSC Smart Connect app, which you use to operate the Action doorbell, for example, collects a lot of data. Your GPS, location and contact details, among other things, are sent to Tuya Cloud, the storage platform of the Chinese company.
The Action doorbell’s privacy terms are pretty shallow. They swear not to misuse your data, but do not go into further details. The fact remains that your data goes back and forth to China. Whether you object to this is personal.
There are no known accounts of abuse by Tuya, but the security of the LSC Smart Connect doorbell is a concern. For example, in 2018, a hacker showed how easy Tuya products were to crack. This is because the stuff has the ability to perform updates silently. As a result, Tuya technically has full control over the device, without you as a user noticing it.
The ‘leak’ from the above video has now been closed, but it is unclear what the safety of Tuya products is currently doing. It is also impossible to show whether the manufacturer actually performs updates in the background. It is remarkable and noteworthy that the possibility is there at all.
Conclusion
So, is it smart to buy an Action doorbell? The answer to that question is twofold. On the one hand, it is an affordable way to get to know the world of smart devices, if you accept security and privacy concerns.
On the other hand, it might be smarter to keep saving and to do business with a party that has a reliable track record. Secretly, a smart doorbell reveals a lot of information about your personal life and you don’t want to let that data get into the wrong hands.
Living month on iPhone
The whole month of May stands iPhone in the sign of living and of course we pay a lot of attention to smart homes. From the best smart doorbells without a subscription to a comparison between Apple HomeKit and Google Home: everything comes along. We have previously published these articles:
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Advice: Is it useful to buy a smart Action doorbell?
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HomeKit vs Google Home: this is how you choose the best option for your smart home
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Tip: This is how you control every lamp with your iPhone in the Home app
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Which smart doorbell works without a subscription? These are 4 good options
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Filming the public road with a smart doorbell: what is allowed and what is not?