Guardzilla has gone out of business, as Consumer Reports found out this week. The home security company was already the recipient of negative publicity due to a range of security flaws in its products, but the firm tried to one-up itself this month by shutting down its cloud infrastructure without first informing its customers.
Given how reliant they are on the cloud, this means that almost all of the now-defunct company’s cameras are now near-useless. Users had been noticing connectivity issues for weeks but were met with silence from the company’s support teams. The reason, it turns out, is that the company had gone out of business, and has only this month posted a message on its website admitting to the fact:
We deeply regret that these troubling times have caused us to close our doors. We are sorry for any inconvenience this has caused, as we will be unable to continue support for the Guardzilla product line.
This comes weeks after consumers report being unable to log in to the app, though the Better Business Bureau has some complaints about the company’s support teams being non-responsive as far back as December 2019.
Not only did the company leave its customers in the dark about its demise but also various retailers, as listings of its now-useless cameras can still be found at Bed Bath & Beyond, QVC, Amazon, Buy Buy Baby, eBay, and Newegg.
With its servers shut down, any of the previously saved surveillance footage is now inaccessible. In addition, the company’s terms of service suggest that if the company were to be sold, “personal information may be transferred to the buyer so that the buyer can continue to provide you with information and services.” There’s not much information about what consumers should expect in the event of a total shutdown, though the language does suggest that users’ personal data cannot be used for purposes other than continuity of service, which should help ease some privacy concerns, at least.
