Florida’s attorney general is investigating at-home camera company Lorex for potential ties to the Chinese Communist Party and alleged violations of consumer protection laws.
Florida AG James Uthmeier announced Friday that he subpoenaed Lorex to find out more information about potential foreign spying risks and whether the company misled consumers about the privacy of its products.
Uthmeier is also looking into its relationship with Dahua Technology, a Chinese tech company that acquired Lorex in 2018 and sold it in 2023. The sale was largely because of concerns about Dahua Technology’s role in human rights atrocities in Xinjiang, where China has viciously persecuted its Uyghur Muslim population.
Lorex is a Canadian-founded company and is now owned by Taiwan-based firm Skywatch International, an advanced technology corporation.
“Florida families deserve straight answers about who touches their data and who controls the code in the devices they put in their homes. The Chinese Communist Party cannot be allowed to spy on American children. Florida will not tolerate it, and we will hold bad actors accountable,” Uthmeier said in a statement.
NR has reached out to Lorex for comment. The subpoena is not a demonstration of wrongdoing and Uthmeier’s investigation is ongoing.
Florida subpoenaed Lorex for documents and information about its corporate structure and contracts with third parties involved in making its products. Uthmeier is also demanding records related to Lorex’s software updates, source-code access, cloud platforms, and any security vulnerabilities involving Lorex devices.
Furthermore, Florida is requiring Lorex to hand over documents detailing its privacy claims, product FAQs, Florida sales and contracts, and submissions to the Federal Communications Commission.
“AG Uthmeier must discover whether Lorex is selling re-labeled Dahua products which would introduce a range of cybersecurity vulnerabilities that would give the CCP a direct line into the homes and private lives of millions of Floridians,” said Michael Lucci, CEO of State Armor, a watchdog group specializing in Chinese espionage and influence operations.
“If so, there must be strict accountability to the maximum extent of the law. The use of surveillance equipment produced by CCP-linked companies is a direct threat to the privacy of every American who uses such products, and is an unacceptable national security risk.”
Lorex is not the only company to face scrutiny over its potential ties to the Chinese Communist Party. Links between TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, and the CCP played a major role in Congress’s bipartisan legislation last year mandating ByteDance sell TikTok or have the platform banned from operating in the U.S.
Although the Supreme Court upheld the TikTok legislation, President Trump has repeatedly delayed the enforcement of it. The White House is now on TikTok and using the platform to promote its agenda. The Chinese Communist Party has increasingly used its power to influence ostensibly private entities seeking to operate in the world’s second largest economy.
Chinese espionage, particularly through hacking, is considered a major U.S. national security risk. Dozens of cases of Chinese espionage have been made public in recent years and more than 100 cases of Chinese hacking have been identified over the past decade.