The bipartisan letter dated Oct. 31, sent through Rep. Christopher Smith (R-NJ, 4th) and Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR), said Costco’s continued sale of Lorex is “even more confusing,” given that many of its retail competitors have long since stopped promoting the technology, raising concerns about human rights and moral sourcing.
The lawmakers added that the sale of the Lorex device contradicts Costco’s public commitments to prohibit overseas human rights abuses at its home chain, according to the letter sent to Costco CEO Walter Craig Jelinek.
The letter came about two years after an investigation via TechCrunch and IPVM video surveillance news found that several retail giants were touting Lorex surveillance equipment. Home Depot, Best Buy, and Lowe’s pulled Lorex products from their shelves as a result of our requests, but Costco did not.
Lorex until recently was a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Chinese company Dahua. In 2019, Dahua was added to the U. S. government’s economic sanctions list. The U. S. government has joined the U. S. , along with Hikvision, after the two corporations were accused of profiting from the sale of generation related to China’s ongoing efforts to suppress ethnic minorities in Xinjiang, home to millions of Uighur Muslims. The U. S. has accused China of relying on technology manufacturers, such as Dahua and Hikvision, to monitor the population, calling human rights abuses in Xinjiang “genocide. “
“The sale of the Lorex protective apparatus allows Dahua to tap into the U. S. market even though the U. S. government has prohibited the use of its apparatus for security and human rights reasons,” Smith and Merkley said in the letter.
Lawmakers say Lore’s products also pose a “known security risk,” bringing up recent security flaws discovered in its products and the company’s obvious legal responsibility to comply with China’s Intelligence on Demand law.
Although Dahua sold Lorex earlier this year to Taiwanese company Skywatch, lawmakers say the sale “does not allay our concerns or replace the security dangers they pose to U. S. businesses and consumers, as Dahua still manufactures all the parts for Lorex cameras” and other tracking equipment.
Lawmakers sent Costco about a dozen questions, adding questions about how the sale of Lorex devices complies with U. S. sanctions or its own human rights commitments. Lawmakers also demanded details about Costco’s sale of seafood to Chinese corporations that allegedly used forced hard labor. to catch and process seafood for U. S. buyers.
Costco returned a request for comment. Lorex’s parent company, Skywatch, also had no comment at the time of publication.
The letter sent to Costco can be found here.
U. S. Retail Giants Pull Chinese Surveillance Technologies From Shelves