{"id":1114,"date":"2020-06-03T12:03:46","date_gmt":"2020-06-03T16:03:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thesmarthomehookup.com\/test_install\/?p=1114"},"modified":"2023-10-10T13:44:23","modified_gmt":"2023-10-10T17:44:23","slug":"indoor-cameras-reviewed-and-tested-for-privacy-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thesmarthomehookup.com\/test_install\/indoor-cameras-reviewed-and-tested-for-privacy-concerns\/","title":{"rendered":"Indoor Cameras Reviewed and Tested for Privacy Concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/X0Fyk6nJhK4\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>So you really want to install an internet connected camera inside your house? Well, today on the hookup we\u2019re going to look at 10 indoor cameras from 8 different brands and determine if any of them have what it takes to overcome the massive privacy concerns that come with installing a camera inside your home.<\/p>\n<p>I am a huge advocate for security cameras.\u00a0 When done right they increase security and peace of mind more than any other gadget out there, but I\u2019m also very concerned with privacy, and those two worlds are constantly at odds with each other.\u00a0 Moving cameras indoors makes the situation infinitely more delicate, so today, we\u2019re going to determine if it is ever possible to have a camera in your house without introducing a possible invasion of privacy.<\/p>\n<p>What am I talking about when I say \u201cinvasion of privacy\u201d?\u00a0 There are three main case where your privacy could be compromised:<\/p>\n<p>Case 1 is the one that we\u2019ve seen on the news: some hacker living in their parent\u2019s basement with nothing better to do decides to gain access to a camera feed and use the two way audio to spy on and terrorize families and kids.<\/p>\n<p>Case 2 is another valid concern where bored and unethical employees at camera companies who are given administrator access to cameras for valid reasons, end up using them to spy on users, watch their recorded footage, and generally invade their privacy.<\/p>\n<p>Case 3 is an unfortunately very real potential privacy breach that comes from governments either forcing giving subsidies to companies to provide them with a \u201cback door\u201d that can be used spy on domestic or international citizens.\u00a0 I know this sounds like a tinfoil hat conspiracy theory, but this is unfortunately very real and has been proven to have happened multiple times in the not so distant past.<\/p>\n<p>The problem with these privacy concerns is that camera companies can implement security measures to stop hackers and make you feel better about case 1, but cases 2 and 3 are directly related to negligence at the manufacturer level, so they can\u2019t really be mitigated by any camera specific features.<\/p>\n<p>So, from this point on in the video I\u2019m going to look at these cameras through two different lenses, and you need to decide for yourself which one is right for you:\u00a0 First, I\u2019m going to assume that camera companies are trustworthy and the claims that they make are truthful.\u00a0 I\u2019ll analyze the features of each camera and tell you which ones I think performed the best.<\/p>\n<p>Then, you can step into my shoes, and we will trust no one.\u00a0 I\u2019ll show you how to set up an indoor camera to be completely secure to the point where you could feel comfortable installing it in your own bedroom if that\u2019s what you\u2019re into.\u00a0 I\u2019d recommend watching the whole video and then making your decision, but feel free to use the timestamps if you already know what you\u2019re interested in.<\/p>\n<p>Before we get started, lets see which cameras are on the chopping block today:\u00a0 From least expensive to most we\u2019ve got the WyzeCam V2, the Blink Mini, the EZVIZ C1C, the Eufycam 2K, the WyzeCam PTZ, the Sonoff GK200, IoTech\u2019s Ucam, EufyCam\u2019s Pan&amp;Tilt, the Reolink E1 Pro, and the SimCam AI.\u00a0 Here we go.<\/p>\n<p>Case 1:<\/p>\n<p>Hackers gain access to your cameras in one of two ways: Either through compromised logins from other websites, or built in administrator override passwords that are extracted by skilled hackers from firmware updates.\u00a0 Both of these methods can be used by relatively low skilled bad actors who can obtain large lists of compromised and leaked login and password combinations online, or look up firmware vulnerabilities on sites dedicated to compiling that type of information.\u00a0 Almost all the major camera breaches that have made the news have been from login and password combinations leaked by unrelated websites, but you can be sure that those reported stories are only the tip of the iceberg and that invasions of privacy are far more likely than we realize.<\/p>\n<p>Of the cameras that I reviewed, there are a few different methods of ensuring your camera feed is secure and safe from hackers.\u00a0 The blink mini requires all users to use 2 factor authentication on their accounts, but uses email to provide the security code.\u00a0 While this is better than nothing, it\u2019s likely that someone who reuses the same username and password over and over will also do the same for their email account as well, rendering this method ineffective.\u00a0 Wyze offers 2 factor authentication using SMS text messages, which is a significantly more secure method and Eufy plans to release 2 factor authentication in August of this year, but no word of whether it will be email or text message based.<\/p>\n<p>Instead of 2 factor authentication, UCAM and SimCam have implemented their own unique methods for protecting your privacy.\u00a0 UCAM\u2019s main selling point is the use of \u201cblockchain\u201d technology to encrypt your video feed and login.\u00a0 I\u2019m skeptical of this claim since \u201cblockchain\u201d usually requires a network of private computer to verify blocks, but at the very least UCAM addresses the issue of insecure passwords by using a randomly generated private key to link your camera to your app, rather than requiring a username and password, and once a camera is locked to a mobile device it cannot be accessed anywhere else without the approval of the master device.<\/p>\n<p>SimCam provides some protection from hacking by allowing you to activate something called LAN mode, which only allows your cameras to be viewed if you are on the same local network, and the ability to deactivate LAN mode is limited to pre-registered devices.\u00a0 This is my least favorite implementation of hacking countermeasures, but it\u2019s something.<\/p>\n<p>Of these cameras that have implemented measures to protect your privacy against hackers, or will be in the near future, here are the top performers:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>The EufyCam Pan and Tilt has the highest quality video, and the most impressive in app customization. You can set it to detect any motion, just people, just pets, loud noises, or even specifically alert you if it detects crying.\u00a0 I was also able to get an advance version of their homekit compatible firmware and the thing that struck me the most was the lack of lag in the homekit video stream which is as close to instantaneous as I\u2019ve ever seen in a video camera.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>The EufyCam can simultaneously play video in eufy app, homekit live view, RTSP feed, and record to the local SD card, which covers pretty much all the bases.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, the homekit implementation is only for homekit compatibility, not homekit secure compatibility, which means you\u2019ll still need to use the Eufy App for most functionality including common features like pan and tilt and reviewing saved footage.\u00a0 I\u2019m also disappointed that the Eufy Pan and Tilt still only uses the 2.4 gigahertz wifi band\u2026 and in 2020 and I think it\u2019s unacceptable for companies to be producing high bandwidth devices that rely on the congested and inferior 2.4 gigahertz band, aside from that, assuming that Eufy delivers two factor authentication in August, the Eufy Pan and Tilt was the best camera the camera that I tested assuming the companies themselves can be trusted.<\/p>\n<ol start=\"2\">\n<li>The UCAM performance was also respectable, and even though it still only uses the 2.4 gigahertz wifi band I did appreciate the addition of an ethernet port, though I\u2019m not sure how often it will be used by their typical customer. Even though it is only 1080p, the UCAM video looks great and the UCAM app offers both local continuous recording to an SD card or cloud video storage that is supposedly encrypted on your device before it is stored on the UCAM servers.\u00a0 Since UCAM\u2019s whole selling point is security of your data it seems like they may have better policies in place as a company, but I personally am not in the business of trusting companies to uphold their promises, and again, that is a decision you will need to make for yourself.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<ol start=\"3\">\n<li>The WyzeCam has two things going for it: It\u2019s cheap, and it has the same cool extra features of the Eufy like person detection and sound detection, but in my tests the Wyze had the worst video quality and really struggled in situations where the lighting was inconsistent in the scene. I\u2019m also a little concerned about the direction of the company, as they seem to be moving towards a more cloud and subscription based model.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been using a WyzeCam in my house for the last years with their optional RTSP firmware, and I had it blocked from the internet with my firewall.\u00a0 It worked without issue until I updated to the latest firmware to include it in this video and now the camera refuses to join a network without internet access, it just defaults back to the setup mode if I block its access to the internet.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>I\u2019ve also got a list of cameras to avoid:\u00a0 The worst of which is the Blink Mini.\u00a0 If you\u2019re not familiar with blink cameras, they are easy to use versatile battery powered cameras, and in my outdoor camera test, they were one of the top performers.\u00a0 The blink mini on the other hand manages to include all the shortcomings of a battery powered camera, while still needing to be plugged in.\u00a0 It seems like they just took the exact same software that was in their battery cameras and threw it in some cheap indoor hardware. This means no recording to the device, no person detection, oh, and the live view times out after 60 seconds\u2026 on a plug in camera. Also, if you weren\u2019t a blink customer before April of 2020 you\u2019re going to need to pay monthly for cloud storage.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know why the blink team thought this camera needed to exists, but you shouldn\u2019t buy it.<\/p>\n<p>The SimCam is expensive, $130 to be exact, so you would expect it to do more than other cameras.\u00a0 The idea behind the SimCam is really cool, it has on device AI computer vision to do things like object tracking, pet detection, vehicle detection and person detection including facial recognition.\u00a0 You can imagine how important it is that all of these services are handled locally on the camera in order to protect your privacy, so the SimCam seems like a great idea.\u00a0 Guess what? If you block the SimCam from the internet, none of the locally processed ai works.\u00a0 I don\u2019t understand why they would go through all the trouble to produce a locally processed ai camera and then have it be reliant on the internet for delivering and archiving the locally stored footage.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s also worth noting, the SimCam has motorized pan, but it\u2019s loud enough that you could basically never use it without drawing significant attention to the camera.\u00a0 The SimCam does use the 5 gigahertz wifi band though, so it\u2019s got that going for it.<\/p>\n<p>Neither Reolink, EZVIZ, nor Sonoff offer 2 factor authentication or the ability to bind a camera to a specific mobile device, so they don\u2019t have any built-in defense against hacking.\u00a0 The Sonoff camera had the worst video quality of the cameras that I tested, and while the EZVIZ actually produced a decent image at a great price, their parent company Hikvision has had some serious privacy related allegations made against them by the US government, and the EZVIZ loses all functionality without an internet connection, so you should probably skip it.\u00a0 The Reolink E1 Pro on the other hand is the camera that have decided to use in my house to replace my custom firmware WyzeCam V2.<\/p>\n<p>As I mentioned before, even though these companies have made an effort to prevent hacking, you still have to trust their claims that the companies themselves will keep your data safe and private.\u00a0 UCAM for instance claims that your footage is encrypted on the device before it is sent to the cloud, making it \u201cimpossible\u201d for them to view your footage because they would need your private key.\u00a0 But since the private key is viewable in plain text in their app, couldn\u2019t they just retrieve it from the app and then view your footage?\u00a0 Unfortunately, claims like the ones made by UCAM are difficult or impossible to verify and require you to just take their word for it.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s why, in every case, the safest thing for you to do is trust no one but yourself.\u00a0 Security cameras are appliances with a specific job, they should record video and show you video when you ask.\u00a0 As long as there is an option for local storage, that means a camera shouldn\u2019t need to contact cloud servers for anything, right?<\/p>\n<p>So, why was it that when I tested these cameras every single one was in constant contact with manufacturer cloud servers? The average consumer is ignorant to privacy concerns and instead is focused on a cameras\u2019s ease of use.\u00a0 This means cameras will use services like p2p to be accessible from outside their local network, and some will offload video to the cloud for services like person detection, notifications, and scheduling.\u00a0 I am not saying that all communication with cloud servers means that a camera is violating your privacy, but what I am saying is that it\u2019s impossible to determine what data is being collected by these cameras because it is being sent securely from your camera to their servers.<\/p>\n<p>As is my recommendation for every security camara ever, you should either completely block them from the internet, or assume that the footage is not private.\u00a0 This is truly the only way to protect your privacy against all possible threats.\u00a0 There are two problem with this solution: First, not all routers have the ability to create rules to block specific devices from using the internet, and second, some cameras really don\u2019t like having their internet taken away and end up losing most if not all of their functionality.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, every camera except the Reolink failed in some way when blocked from the internet, some more than others.\u00a0 The EZVIZ app became completely non-functional, while the RTSP stream remained without granting it access to the internet, but it\u2019s only a 1080p stream, and it\u2019s limited to the 2.4 gigahertz wifi band.\u00a0 Similarly, the Sonoff camera has an accessible RTSP stream with an internet connection, but the app is non-functional\u2026 also if you are considering using the sonoff camera in a nursery or childs room, you should be aware that if it ever loses power, it will yell the following messages at you on startup.\u00a0 The Eufycam did produce a functional RTSP stream without an internet connection, but has a 5 minute timeout period after power on where it continually tries to connect to the internet before eventually allowing local communication.\u00a0 In my opinion the Eufy has enough limitations in this locally controlled mode that it isn\u2019t a viable option.<\/p>\n<p>So lets talk about the Reolink E1 pro.\u00a0 Not only is it the highest resolution camera I tested coming in at 2560&#215;1440, but the app is fully functional without any connection to the internet.\u00a0 Motion detection works, video playback works, pan and tilt work, settings changes work, everything works as long as you are on the same local network, or have a VPN set up for when you are away.\u00a0 Another huge selling point? This camera connects to your 5 gigahertz wifi network, meaning faster transfer speeds and less network channel congestion.\u00a0 It has two RTSP streams, both a main stream and a lower resolution substream, and the pan and tilt functionality is nearly silent.<\/p>\n<p>If you aren\u2019t able to lock the camera down using your firewall, I wouldn\u2019t recommend the Reolink due to the lack of two factor authentication, but if you can, and you want a great indoor camera with virtually zero privacy concerns, the Reolink E1 Pro is unbeatable in this space. \u00a0Be careful when purchasing this camera, there is also a cheaper version called the Reolink E1 that lacks the ability to output an RTSP stream and has lower resolution.<\/p>\n<p>One other option that I\u2019m not going spend too much time talking about is custom firmware for these cameras.\u00a0 There are projects to open source firmware on both the WyzeCam style cameras, and a project in its infacy to use custom firmware on the sonoff camera, but in my opinion, if you are capable of installing these custom firmwares you would be much better off buting a Reolink E1 Pro and manually blocking it from the internet\u2026 the picture quality and 5 gigahertz wifi reliability is not even in the same ballpark as the wyzecam or sonoff camera.\u00a0 If you\u2019re interested in how I quarantine my IoT products checkout my ultimate smart home network series, and stay tuned for an update video within the next few weeks where I\u2019ll upgrade from my USG to the new Dream Machine Pro.<\/p>\n<p>Thank you to all of my awesome patrons over at patreon for continuing to support my channel and making it possible for me to make comprehensive comparison videos like this one.\u00a0 If you\u2019re interested in supporting my channel please check out the links down in the description.\u00a0 If you enjoyed this video, please hit that thumbs up button and consider subscribing.\u00a0 And as always, thanks for watching the hookup.<\/p>\n<h4>My choice given you can block your cameras from the internet:<\/h4>\n<h4>Reolink E1 Pro: Amazon US: <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2U0KoiE\">https:\/\/amzn.to\/2U0KoiE<\/a><\/h4>\n<h4>Reolink Direct with ($42 with Coupon Code ytb5E1pro):\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/reolink.com\/product\/e1-pro\/?aff=50\">https:\/\/reolink.com\/product\/e1-pro\/?aff=50<\/a><\/h4>\n<h4>My top 3 choices for those without the ability (or desire) to block cameras from the internet:<\/h4>\n<h4>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 1. EufyCam Pan &amp; Tilt: <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3hfnAnV\">https:\/\/amzn.to\/3hfnAnV<\/a><\/h4>\n<ol start=\"2\">\n<li>\n<h4>IoTeX UCAM (Ships July): <a href=\"https:\/\/ucam.iotex.io\/\">https:\/\/ucam.iotex.io\/<\/a><\/h4>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<h4>WyzeCam V2 (Shipping Now): <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2ZVdTWZ\">https:\/\/amzn.to\/2ZVdTWZ<\/a><\/h4>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h4>Follow me on Twitter: @TheHookUp1<\/h4>\n<h4>Join me on Facebook: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/groups\/473812443269387\/?ref=share\">https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/groups\/473812443269387\/?ref=share<\/a><\/h4>\n<h4>Support my channel: Patreon: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/thehookup\">https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/thehookup<\/a><\/h4>\n<h4>Music by www.BenSound.com<\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>So you really want to install an internet connected camera inside your house? Well, today on the hookup we\u2019re going to look at 10 indoor cameras from 8 different brands and determine if any of them have what it takes to overcome the massive privacy concerns that come with installing a camera inside your home. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2536,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reviews"],"acf":[],"mb":[],"mfb_rest_fields":["title","gutenberg_elementor_mode"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesmarthomehookup.com\/test_install\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesmarthomehookup.com\/test_install\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesmarthomehookup.com\/test_install\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesmarthomehookup.com\/test_install\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesmarthomehookup.com\/test_install\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1114"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesmarthomehookup.com\/test_install\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1114\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3797,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesmarthomehookup.com\/test_install\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1114\/revisions\/3797"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesmarthomehookup.com\/test_install\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesmarthomehookup.com\/test_install\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesmarthomehookup.com\/test_install\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesmarthomehookup.com\/test_install\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}