Anker's controversial data collection scheme reveals how companies are monetizing user privacy for AI training. The Chinese security camera giant paid Eufy customers $2 per video to capture real and staged theft footage, collecting over 200,000 videos from users who turned their homes into training grounds for surveillance algorithms.
Anker just turned its customers into paid data collectors, and the implications are staggering. The Chinese company behind Eufy security cameras offered users cold hard cash - $2 per video - to capture theft footage for training its AI detection systems. The program ran from December 2024 through February 2025, but its impact on privacy and surveillance capitalism is just beginning to unfold.
The offer was surprisingly explicit about its goals. According to company documents, Anker wanted 20,000 videos each of package thefts and car break-ins. But here's where it gets weird - the company actively encouraged users to stage fake crimes. "You can even create events by pretending to be a thief and donate those events," the campaign website read. Users could potentially earn $80 by staging a single car theft scenario captured by multiple cameras.
The financial incentive worked. More than 120 users publicly confirmed their participation on the campaign's announcement page, though Anker won't reveal the total participation numbers or how much it ultimately paid out. The company collected footage through a simple Google Form where users uploaded videos alongside their PayPal details for payment.
What's more revealing is Anker's ongoing "Video Donation Program," which gamifies data collection through an "Honor Wall" ranking system. The top contributor has donated an astounding 201,531 videos, according to screenshots from the Eufy app. These aren't small clips either - they're full surveillance recordings from users' homes, driveways, and businesses.
The program exposes a troubling trend in AI development where companies are essentially crowdsourcing their training data by paying consumers to surrender their privacy. Unlike traditional data collection that happens passively, this model actively incentivizes users to create content specifically for algorithmic consumption.
Privacy advocates have long warned about surveillance capitalism, but Anker's approach represents a new frontier - surveillance participation. Users aren't just being monitored; they're being paid to participate in their own monitoring and that of others in their communities.
The program becomes more concerning when viewed against Anker's privacy track record. In 2023, that Eufy had been misleading customers about encryption protections. The company advertised end-to-end encrypted camera streams, but footage was accessible unencrypted through its web portal. Only after sustained pressure did Anker admit to misleading users and promise fixes.
