Iowa sues camera maker Lorex over ties to China's Dahua

Iowa's attorney general is suing the home security camera maker Lorex over its ties to the Chinese surveillance equipment maker Zhejiang Dahua Technology. Brenna Bird announced the complaint on October 9, alleging the company hid material facts about who can access the footage its cameras collect — information the state says "is susceptible to being accessed by China and the Chinese Communist Party."

The centerpiece of the complaint is a disclaimer on Lorex's own FAQ page. There the company states its products are "designed for consumer and business use only and not for U.S. federal governments, federally-funded projects or contractors subject to NDAA" — the annual defense-spending law that bars certain Chinese surveillance equipment from federal use. Bird's office argues the disclaimer shows Lorex understood the security concerns precisely, while steering shoppers toward the conclusion that any risk was a federal matter and the cameras were therefore safe for the nursery.

The supply chain sits underneath the marketing question. Dahua is on the Pentagon's blacklist of Chinese military companies; Lorex's ownership has since passed to Taiwan-based Skywatch, but the complaint alleges the company still sells cameras "made using components and technology" from Dahua. Iowa cites China's 2017 National Intelligence Law, which obliges organizations and citizens to "support, assist, and cooperate with" national intelligence work, and 2021 regulations that could let Beijing learn of security flaws before patches ship. Together, the state argues, they make nonsense of Lorex's assurances that its cameras are "private by design."

Iowa is not alone. Nebraska, Texas and Missouri have filed similar suits, and Bird — who has brought two other China-related cases in recent weeks — is seeking reimbursement, civil penalties and fees under Iowa's Consumer Fraud Act. "The fact that a Chinese-backed company can spy on Iowa kids and families through baby cameras is creepy and scary," Bird said in announcing the suit.

The structure the lawsuits expose is straightforward. Federal blacklists and procurement rules kept Dahua's hardware out of government buildings; the consumer market sorted the same components by price, and the baby monitors went home with whoever paid retail. Lorex did not respond to a request for comment. The company's website promises "every step possible" to keep recordings private; its FAQ carries the disclaimer explaining why federal law does not consider the products safe for government use.