Can't take them down, as I have none... I kinda value my privacy.
Not to blame anyone here, but I have a hard time understanding how this could ever be considered a smart idea by anyone, even worse when it's to be used inside one's home?
Edit: typo.
this post was submitted on 02 Apr 2026
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Privacy
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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.
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?
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.
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?
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.
Good use case, but you’re aware of it and not broadcasting the whole home.
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 🥰
Cameras come with the hack preinstalled now
You’re not wrong!
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
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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Judging by some Reddit posts, it's useful when you beat the shit out of intruders and can a) prove self-defence, b) brag about it.
- 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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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
Most baby monitors have cameras nowadays. So that's one possible reason.
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Yeah that part I can't really imagine doing, knowing that you'd never have anywhere where you're not being watched and recorded. Baffles me as well.
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At this point I assume any electronic product or website is malicious and spying on me (or at least trying).
I think the premise of easy access to a live feed of your pet at home or just your house while you're out of town is straightforward enough
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The ease of use. Setting up IP cameras to be safety accessed from outside your local network is not easy for most people. And there are legitimate uses even in the home.
I'm currently working on getting things all switched over to POE IP cameras, contained in a separate VLAN behind an instance of frigate. Your average consumer's brains would have been dribbling from their ear before the comma in that last sentence.
Your average consumer’s brains would have been dribbling from their ear before the comma in that last sentence.
I can understand that very easily: I'm that average consumer, no doubt about that ;) but I was also keenly aware my privacy was worth more than the convenience of me using whatever trendy gizmo without me fully controlling it. So, not being able to control those tools I decided to use none. Like I do not use any smart-anything.
Edit: rephrasing for clarity's sake.
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i had to watch several of his videos on surveillance before realizing that this is the guy who saved a .png image to a bird
Dude is all over the place and I kinda love it. From his teardown of capitalism, his insight on how music streaming platforms take advantage of musicians, to making spacey dream music with an antique model train control board, to an in depth analysis in how cicadas make noise, and now becoming a privacy activist and amateur white hat hacker. It's crazy
He started as a producer of idm and breakcore, and has about fifteen aliases. His arc into cypherpunk isn't wholly unexpected, but is nevertheless appreciated, especially considering he's getting up in years.
Jokes on you I was never dumb enough to buy one in the first place.
I unplugged mine like a year ago but they're still there physically as a deterrent, hopefully. Been wanting to try out something self-hosted.
but they're still there physically as a deterrent, hopefull
This is a smart move
I installed the ubiquity one since I already had the udm pro.
Ubiquiti is one of those ones I've never fully figured out, I really like their products but logging in using the ui.com account makes it seem like there's at least some aspect the relies on a cloud connection and therefore offers access from outside, maybe I just missed a setting to set everything to local login only, I dunno, don't have my Ubiquiti system up and running anymore.
You can still log in locally. The cloud version is so you can log in anywhere.
I use a cloud login so I can manage mine and friends network but you can do local only. Even without Internet I can login to my stuff still when I'm at home.
I went with a waterproof usb webcam fed through the wall and connected to a raspberry pi with motioneye
Frigate is great for self-hosted!
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There are some situations that having your data in the cloud makes more sense than others.
Having a live video feed of your home is like one of the top worse use cases.
Best one imo is steam game saves
Best one imo is steam game saves
Until they figure out how to have AI build profiles based on Steam game saves.
This person always chooses the Arasaka ending every time. Recommend for complementary leadership courses and corporate advancement
Vs
Always sides with the Underground Railroad. Reject 🧊 job application as potential insider threat
... What do you think kernel level anti cheat is there for?
Stopping cheats?
Its sucks ass at that.
But it can read and write basically every bit on your PC.
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Are my cameras smart if they are in an isolated network with a dual homed home assistant/frigate server? They seem smart to me, notifications, detections, stored clips to my nas.
He does show that wireless cameras WiFi activity can be used to track people inside their home. But that seems like a targeted attack, not necessarily something that would be used for mass surveillance. But locally hosting the footage removes you from almost all the issues in general and what's brought up in this video. Just ideally you'd run the cameras over PoE.
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I don't have any smart cameras but I've been thinking of getting a camera for my front porch lately to deter (and possibly chase down) porch pirates. I live on a busy pedestrian street so I've had packages stolen within 10 minutes...
Does anyone have a privacy respecting, preferably self hosted, camera suggestion? I'd love if it could notify me when a delivery has been made
Home assistant can use basically any device with a camera, if you have an old phone or smth
I use a Raspberry Pi with two external usb cameras running MotionEyeOS. It’s easy to flash to a micro SD and I got a waterproof box to keep the pie dry.
I've been very happy with Reolink so far - it works with Home Assistant so can be (is) self hosted through with a server as well as the onboard SD card.
Yeah look at https://frigate.video/ for the software and the look at the cameras they recommended. I believe reolink cameras which are kept from accessing the Internet are one of the recommended approaches.
Some people have a box for packages for that.
I'm also a fan of putting a fake package out full of dog shit... Just put a fake address on it and they won't remember where it came from.
I think think might be illegal...
Or you could put a package with a tracker in it.
By the way, getting into poorly secured cameras is in no way new. The Shodan search engine was launched in 2009, and its use for finding cameras was described in 2013 at the latest.
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