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It's Time to Take Down your Smart Cameras | Benn Jordan (www.youtube.com)
submitted 4 months ago by to c/privacy@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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[–] [S] 31 points 4 months ago* (3 children)

The video shows that even security cameras by companies like ADT will spy on you. Apparently 2/3 of US households have outdoor security cameras, and 1/3 have internal security cameras.

Most people probably don't know how to set up their own secure entirely local security camera setup, so they just hire it done, which almost always means connecting it to a corporate cloud.

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  • [–] 24 points 4 months ago (10 children)

    The idea of having a security camera inside my house is totally insane to me. Convenient to have them outside but inside? What purpose can that possibly serve?

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  • [–] 23 points 4 months ago (2 children)

    I have one single camera inside my home. I’m very careful about how it is positioned so that it can only see exactly what I want it to see. I adjust it so that no person is visible at any time, except maybe feet walking by.

    I have this camera pointed directly at my rabbits litter box and hay bin. Rabbits can get very sick, very quickly and knowing when they last ate and pooped is a massive benefit when they have stomach issues. A rabbit not eating for 2 hours vs 12 hours is a big difference.

    Gas for rabbits can be deadly, not eating is a huge warning sign for rabbit health. 2 hours is something I can treat at home, 12 hours will likely require a trip to the emergency vet. The camera has already saved me thousands in emergency vet fees.

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  • [–] 7 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    That is a great use case that I never even considered as a rabbit owner. A bit off topic,but what sort of camera are you using? What's the recording backend?

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  • [–] 6 points 4 months ago*

    It’s a gen 1 Nest cam that I got as a Christmas gift years ago. I pay a yearly fee to keep video in the cloud for a month. The fee is 100% worth it for my buns.

    I’d like to switch to something that is more in house, but my tech skills are not up to that. So I just make sure it only shows the litter and hay boxes.

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  • [–] 6 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    Good use case, but you’re aware of it and not broadcasting the whole home.

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  • [–] 7 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    I lived the early days of the internet when cameras were more easily hacked. I try to be aware of that and I’m super careful about positioning for that exact reason.

    Plus, I just absolutely love my adorable bunnies even when they poop 🥰

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  • [–] 9 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    You can see what's happening while you're away. Ideally it would only turn on when the normal occupants aren't home. I wanted one when we were out of town and our security system triggered a movement alarm inside. Outside cameras didn't catch anything and a cop came and looked around but didn't see anything. I'm guessing the motion sensor picked up on the curtains moving or something.

    Otherwise, it's pretty handy for proving that you told someone something 3 weeks ago to win an argument. /s

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  • [–] 5 points 4 months ago* (1 child)

    Yeah I have one for the living room that should be able to see anyone coming in from all the doors around the house. I only turn it on when away, and of course my cameras store everything locally.

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  • [–] 3 points 4 months ago

    and of course my cameras store everything locally

    That's the biggest thing. Just store (and access) footage locally.

    Being able to view the cameras remotely is a nice idea in theory, but it raises so many privacy concerns. Just not worth it in most cases. How often would you actually open some app and actually look at the remote video feed?

    No, it's best to just skip that feature and be local only, with no internet connection at all.

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  • [–] 6 points 4 months ago (1 child)
    • Areas of entry where there might be a better view for capturing the face or features of an intruder, specifically with better lighting conditions.
    • Watching pets that are home alone
    • Keeping an eye on someone, like small kids or an adult with a debilitating issue
    • Insurance discounts

    I have indoor cameras. I'm not really worried about the first one, the second is no longer a concern unfortunately as my dog passed away from cancer in January. I mostly have them for the last item at this point.

    That said, ive used them to help keep an eye on my Dad, who had ALS. He knew he could signal to the camera for help (usually the remote fell, but a couple of times it was for medical equipment). All internal though, not internet connected.

    When my kids were still in cribs, I set up cameras in their rooms as well. Hearing phantom cries is a real thing, and I had no interest in the crappy-yet-expensive baby monitors.

    So yeah, they have their uses.

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  • [–] 3 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    Elderly adults living alone may be a legitimate case. There’s not a lot of good options for that scenario.

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  • [–] 2 points 4 months ago

    Even helpful when they aren't alone tbh, just going downstairs into the basement to do some laundry could be an issue - some of the medical equipment would sound like a tornado siren, others would beep-boop like a new dishwasher or washing machine/dryer finishing.

    So the cameras were pretty handy even with people around for when we had to go to another room/floor.

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  • [–] 5 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    Watching pets, kids, 3D printers

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  • [–] 0 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    Streaming kids activity is utterly insane. Walk over and interact with them!

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  • [–] 1 point 4 months ago (1 child)

    Who said people weren't? Remember, projecting your behavior and "morals" onto groups you don't know speaks more about you than them. When it comes to infants it can be great peace of mind. Breaking the instinct for many to constantly enter and disturb their rest, to make sure they're still breathing etc.

    I agree they shouldn't be broadcast to the Internet or 3rd parties. Or placed in sensitive areas, or substitute parental interaction. But they have value. There just needs to be better methods for access not designed to be controlled by 3rd parties. For any new smart devices I get, matter or zwave/ZigBee are mandatory.

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  • [–] 3 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    I agree they shouldn't be broadcast to the Internet or 3rd parties.

    But with minimal exceptions, that’s exactly what they’re doing.

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  • [–] 4 points 4 months ago

    That speaks more to a lack of better options. Than anyone's desire to actually broadcast their children. If someone were making an affordable camera system with a hardware management Hub local that you could log in through tail scale or similar. People would be clamoring for it.

    Unfortunately right now with the AI bubble is about the worst possible time to launch such a product or project. Even a formerly cheap of single board computer such a Raspberry Pi. Which used in the cost about $35 on its own now costs closer to 100. Although there are a number of good inexpensive ESP camera modules now.

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  • [–] 4 points 4 months ago*

    I have one pointing at my front door, came with the house. It's nice when the security system freaks out and sets off a motion alarm (probably my cat) so i can stop the alarm before the cops are called. I don't think I'll be installing a new one the same way though, and this one is pretty much EOL. It's also turned off whenever the alarm isn't set

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  • [–] 2 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    As someone starting to live offgrid sometimes I'm interested in setting up outdoor cameras for security, would you point me in a direction to how to do a local security camera setup so it won't connect to a corporate cloud?

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