Samsung SmartCam
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Samsung SmartCam's products are very well designed devices that record good quality videos and save them to a local microSD card in a compressed format. You can access your camera remotely using a mobile app. Such IP cameras were connecting to your local private network using wifi or LAN cable.
Samsung stopped selling them and now they appear to be under the wisenet brand. The firmware is built in such a way that blocks users registering the camera on their application if the server is not sending the confirmation to the app.
The initial procedure to set up an account asked users to install an internet explorer plugin that was working only for versions less than 10???. That option would still allow customers to use their cameras by using a virtual machine with an old Windows OS.
Late 2024 the android application posted a new message stating that from 1 of January 2025 some models will no longer be supported "due to compatibility issues. We apologize for any inconvenience"
Consumer impact summary
* User Freedom: All users using older models have their access removed without alternatives
* User Privacy: No security breaches have been announced.
* Business Model: The products are self sufficient and they can work for many many years if the firmware is released to use a local installed server.
* Market Control: The company forces clients to purchase new products by blocking the usage of the old ones.
Incidents
Incident
The first incident clients experienced was about the web application plugin built only for Internet Explorer and that it did not receive any updates or fixes. Samsung forum for dropping support for accessing the camera from web browser https://us.community.samsung.com/t5/Samsung-Apps-and-Services/Security-camera-not-working-on-Edge/td-p/2535288
Incident
The second major change on their android mobile app was dropping support for live view from the camera if the phone was not connected to the same network as the camera. This was still allowing customers to liveview the recordings from the camera using VPN.
Samsung forum customers complaining about losing their access to their home security system. https://us.community.samsung.com/t5/Samsung-Apps-and-Services/Viewing-software-for-SNH-V6410PN-smartcam-app-no-longer/td-p/2925583/page/5
Incident
The third change was the announcement where they will simply drop support for some old models of the cameras.
Such cameras are still sold on ebay and they are in perfect condition but they cannot be used by any buyers as the application will simply not find them on your network because the servers are not forwarding the message to your app.
Some users also experience loss of their accounts credentials or servers were turned off.
Products
1080p Camera https://www.samsung.com/us/smart-home/security/cameras/smartcam-hd-pro-1080p-full-hd-wifi-camera-snh-p6410bn/