China-based manufacturer Unitree Robotics pre-installed an apparent backdoor on its popular Go1 robot dogs that allowed anyone to surveil customers around the world

**”Why it matters:** Clear evidence of a backdoor in widely sold consumer technology is rare, and it affirms longstanding concerns from U.S. officials that Chinese-made devices could quietly enable foreign surveillance.

Anyone who came across the public-facing web API could see where Go1 robot dogs were — and if the robot was online, they could view live camera feeds without needing to log in.

They can’t decisively say whether Unitree intended to create a surveillance backdoor or if it was simply a case of “sloppy architecture, sloppy programming,” Makris told Axios.

Rep. John Moolenaar, called the vulnerability a “direct national security threat” and said in a statement to Axios that the committee is actively investigating the risk it poses.”