Retail surveillance removed Austin – Multiple retail stores across the United States have made the decision to pull Chinese video surveillance technology makers Ezviz and Lorex from their shelves due to allegations regarding human rights abuses in China.
According to a statement recently released to TechCrunch, one retail outlet stated that it was “committed to upholding the highest standards of ethical sourcing and we immediately stopped selling products from Lorex when this was brought to our attention.” Another stated that it was “discontinuing our relationship” with both companies.
Lorex is a subsidiary of Dahua technology, while Ezviz is a video surveillance camera brand that is owned by Hikvision. Both companies are headquartered in China and were also added to the economic blacklist of the United States back in 2019 after they were linked to the nation’s ongoing efforts to suppress ethnic minorities in the Xinjiang region, which is where most Uyghur Muslims currently reside.
According to the United States government, Beijing is said to heavily rely on Hikvision, Dahua, and other tech companies to supply surveillance equipment to keep an eye on the Uyghur Muslim population. President Joe Biden’s administration has called the Xinjiang human rights abuses a “genocide” and has also blamed Chinese video surveillance manufacturers of “having been implicated in human rights violations and abuses in the implementation of China’s campaign of repression, mass arbitrary detention, and high-technology surveillance against Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and other members of Muslim minority groups.”
Due to sanctions not covering either Dahua and Hikvision subsidiaries, such as Ezvoz and Lorex, nor do they apply outside the federal government, consumers are still permitted to purchase the technology. Up until recently, Lorex had stated on their official website that the five following national retail outlets were authorized to sell their products:
*Home Depot
*Best Buy
*Lowe’s
*Walmart
*Costco
A Lorex spokesperson was quoted as stating the following in regards to the situation:
Retail surveillance removed Austin “Lorex is fully transparent with our retail partners about our ownership and have been since the acquisition in 2018. We are also regularly in touch with representatives of those companies in regard to various regulatory and compliance issues, including addressing any questions they have about the FCC’s proposed rulemaking.”
Dyezz Surveillance and Security is a professional provider of security solutions based in Austin, Texas. The team of security experts has been offering security and surveillance system installation and monitoring services to a variety of business clients for about two decades. The knowledgeable and skilled security professionals at Dyezz Surveillance and Security have installed integrated alarm systems for retail and other commercial businesses. For a free quote or to learn more about the security solutions available to you, reach out to the professionals at Dyezz Surveillance and Security. Contact them any time online or by calling toll free at 512-883-5206.