PSA: aosuProtect+ "gift" auto-enrolled my device to cloud storage without consent and no way to delete that saved footage

[aosu_ye]

Hi everyone,

I want to share my experience with learning I was automatically enrolled into aosuProtect+, the customer experience support I received in regards to this “gift”, and how I had to self-resolve by deleting my account and factory resetting my device in the interim while I budget for a more private home camera like the UniFi.

Hopefully this post will help others make informed decisions for their personal data/privacy needs.

To start, let’s go over my own personal criteria and how I initially landed on aosu in the first place. Ring is a popular doorbell option, but since it was acquired by Amazon and has been used for government surveillance, including ICE, I definitely wanted to avoid it at all costs and also understand how home camera companies operate and partner with other organizations and establishments. What drew me to aosu specifically was the local SD card storage and no mandatory cloud like Ring, Nest, Arlo, and others require. While I understand the camera is still wi-fi connected to my home network in order to be able to view footage on the aosu app on my phone and other aosu telemetry may be picked up and sent to aosu, I have a DNS sinkhole set up and can manage this type of network traffic (though not to the extent I’d like, which is why I’m inevitably switching to UniFi).

Some months go by and I’m checking through my aosu events for a particular date and I notice I am enrolled in aosuProtect+. I first checked checked my bank account to confirm I was not charged since I was never interested and unsubscribed and contacted customer support immediately. I checked in to understand how I was enrolled and what I was told is I was “gifted” this trial by aosu and all my footage had been uploaded to their cloud. I was extremely frustrated with this and asked the support agent kindly on deleting my cloud storage data as well as informing them that I was not nor have ever been interested in having my footage uploaded to their cloud and I did not consent to this data mining being sold as a “gift”.

To add to this frustration, there was no notification, email, nor way to delete all my cloud data. I asked if at the product level this was something I can ask for myself and if they’d be able to comply, but to no avail. I had to give my device id which I liked they don’t automatically have that metadata from connecting the device to your account and gave an ultimatum: this needs to be deleted and I should not be opted in again or you’ve lost a customer. I was told they’ll escalate and do the best they can. Unfrotunately, after 24 hours I was given the same crud advice that my data could not be deleted and so I screenshotted the whole chat experience, deleted my account, and factory restarted my device.

I am now on a new email alias and a fresh account to re-register my camera within an even more secure home network as an interim solution while I budget for the UniFi system.

I am very disappointed in this experience in aosu and was hoping they could really set themselves up as the budget-friendly home security AND privacy home network. In order to do so, there needs to be more transparency, clear data deletion, and explicit opt-in only options for any cloud storage. The customer support team was professional and responsive, but the product decisions themselves are icky and incompatible with my privacy needs.

To other privacy-conscious buyers, if local-only storage is important to you, check your aosu app right now and look for any aosuProtect+ enrollment you didn’t set up. Bonus from easiest to set up to more time-consuming: 1)put your camera on a guest network with a different password, 2)harden your router settings by changing your default admin password, turning WPS, remote management, and UPnP off, turning on automatic firmware updates, having your Wi-Fi Security be WPA2/WPA3 tranisition mode ideally (or WPA2-AES if a device is having issues connecting with this change), 3)use a trusted DNS provider or setup a pihole for more networking protection, 4)set up a mesh wifi network with your router setup in bridge mode, 5)switch from aosu to UniFi or other more privacy-conscious home security setups.

If you made it this far, thanks for the read and hope this post served as a seed to start your own privacy-conscious journey or as a fair warning.

[aosu_Captain]

First of all, thank you for taking the time to share your experience with us. We completely understand why this situation was frustrating, and we’re truly sorry that your previous experience left you feeling this way，especially since privacy was a key reason you chose aosu.

We’d also like to clarify one important point for both you and other community members: cloud data can be deleted. Users can either delete their cloud recordings directly through the aosu app or submit a request to aosu Support, and we’ll assist with the deletion process.
For all videodoorbell, facial recognition data can be cleared directly in the app by going to Settings → Facial Recognition → Uninstall Skills.

For other supported models, facial recognition data can also be cleared directly in the app by going to Settings → Face Management → Clear Facial Data.

Here are the instructions for canceling your subscription.

That said, we recognize that these privacy controls and data management options aren’t as easy to find as they should be. We’ve taken this feedback to our product team and are working to make these options clearer and more accessible.

We also appreciate your comments on transparency and user choice. Our goal is to be not only a budget-friendly home security option but also a privacy-respecting one, and we’re actively working toward greater transparency, clearer data deletion paths, and clearer choices around cloud storage features.

We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this caused. Since your original deletion request wasn’t resolved the way it should have been, we’d like to make this right. If you have any outstanding issues to be resolved, or encounter any further issues during the usage of our products with your new account, please don’t hesitate to reach out to our customer service team — we’re fully committed to resolving them. Thank you again for sharing your perspective with the community.

[aosu_ye]

Hi aosu_Captain,

Thank you very much for allowing my experience to be posted in the community forum. I appreciate this response tremendously.

Thank you for sharing all the steps, with screenshots included, on how to delete data and remove myself from subscriptions in the future. I had been told numerous times by different customer service representatives that it was not possible and I could not find the setting myself to stop the free trial prematurely of it ending.

I appreciate you reinstating the mission to be a privacy-respecting and budget-friendly security home network and this response has increased my respect for this company.

I would love to see continued support on transparency on deletions and cancellations, as well as opting out of any further “free” trials of subscriptions. Thank you for your support.

[aosu_Captain]

Thank you for your thoughtful follow-up. We’re genuinely glad we had the opportunity to clarify this with you, and we truly appreciate your constructive feedback throughout the discussion.

Your experience also prompted us to look beyond this individual case.
We’ll continue improving the consistency of the information shared across our support channels so users receive clear and accurate guidance regardless of where they reach out.

We’ve also taken this opportunity to review how these features, privacy controls, and related guidance are presented throughout the product experience. We believe there is room to make these options more transparent and easier to discover, while still protecting users from accidentally deleting important data.

Most importantly, we believe users should always have clear visibility into their data and clear ways to manage it. That principle will continue to guide how we improve our products and services going forward.

Thank you once again for raising these points and for giving us the opportunity to improve.
Not only for you, but for the entire aosu community.