Who is watching you?

[chscag]

So you have a home security system with cameras set up. Are you protected? But more important, how about your privacy?

Read through this scary scenario:

Major Privacy Breach as Eufy Security Camera Owners Report Seeing Other Users' Video Feeds

Owners of Eufy home security cameras are this morning reporting seeing live and recorded feeds show up in the Eufy app from other users' cameras, in what appears to be a disturbing breach of privacy and a major malfunctioning of the company's service. As with many connected domestic security...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[RadDave]

Boy, kind of scary, especially with a camera in your bedroom or bathroom! For me, just a doorbell cam and a Sonos speaker w/ Alexa - Dave

 

[lclev]

I have a camera in my kitchen pointed at the main door into our house. We had a friend who was going to watch our dogs when we went on vacation. He thought the morning we were leaving we had already gone and came to turn out the dogs. When he left he turned on our alarm and.... there is a video of me running to the keypad by the door to put in the code - in my birthday suit. SimpliSafe notified me of the video which showed my streaking backside. My husband said I have very cute buns but he is a bit bias!

 

[MacInWin]

We have four cameras. All point into "public" parts of the house--family room/front door area, kitchen/back door area, basement/walk out door area and the utility area to watch for any abnormalities in the water/furnace/etc. That one has already recorded the flood from the burst hot water heater for us, so it's paid for itself! All four are very boring to look at.

 

[Rod]

Boy, kind of scary, especially with a camera in your bedroom or bathroom! For me, just a doorbell cam and a Sonos speaker w/ Alexa - Dave

I thought about getting a Ring doorbell cam myself once but read a few articles about the security/privacy risks and decided against it. This Tom's Guide lists some of the vulnerabilities of that brand; Ring cameras fail privacy test
Obviously even with a reliable brand one has to take reasonable efforts to ensure passwords are secure (not the default) and protocols are high end but in the end it's the old story, the more info about yourself and your activity you put out there the more risk you are at.

I even use a macOS app called Oversight which monitors activity on my MBP mike and camera. It's easy to use and simply asks permission for any activity not previously "whitelisted".

 

[Cr00zng]

We have four cameras. All point into "public" parts of the house--family room/front door area, kitchen/back door area, basement/walk out door area and the utility area to watch for any abnormalities in the water/furnace/etc. That one has already recorded the flood from the burst hot water heater for us, so it's paid for itself! All four are very boring to look at.

We had one of the pressure relief valve failed on our boiler a good while ago. Luckily, I was standing about 6-8 feet from the boiler when it happened, there was no damage other than to the mop.

At that point, we did consider adding a camera to the boiler room, but rejected it. For one, we've been working from home for a dozen or so years by now. The other is, that having the camera could be useful, but there was no way to set a water leak alert. Instead, we opted for a Wi-Fi water detector, that does local sound/light alert and also sends out emails.

 

[MacInWin]

We had one of the pressure relief valve failed on our boiler a good while ago. Luckily, I was standing about 6-8 feet from the boiler when it happened, there was no damage other than to the mop.

At that point, we did consider adding a camera to the boiler room, but rejected it. For one, we've been working from home for a dozen or so years by now. The other is, that having the camera could be useful, but there was no way to set a water leak alert. Instead, we opted for a Wi-Fi water detector, that does local sound/light alert and also sends out emails.

What we are considering is a water leak sensor and a shut off valve that would close off the water to the house if a leak is detected. Then, at least, the water would be limited to what is in the tank/system above the leak and not be fed from the water main to keep going. The recovery company that came to take care of the water and do the repairs removed over 80 gallons of water in the process.

 

[Lifeisabeach]

I have Eufy's doorbell cameras, and one other one outside. I picked them partly because the video footage can be stored strictly locally (no cloud service), although I can access them remotely. I'm wondering if this breach only affects those who choose to use their cloud service. I did read that those who opt to use Apple's HomeKit Secure Video integration instead are not affected, but Eufy has yet to support HSV with their doorbells.

 

[RadDave]

I thought about getting a Ring doorbell cam myself once but read a few articles about the security/privacy risks and decided against it. This Tom's Guide lists some of the vulnerabilities of that brand; Ring cameras fail privacy test..........

Well, we had our house security company CPI install the Doorbell Cam shown below - it is on our home Wi-Fi and they have access to the images/videos taken - not sure if that is a big concern for us? But has been a nice addition to know when the mail, Amazon packages, and food orders are delivered - CPI has its own app which is on our iPads and iPhones for review - we've had a not infrequent visitor in the middle of the night activate a video (see the bottom YouTube upload). Dave
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[chscag]

we've had a not infrequent visitor in the middle of the night activate a video (see the bottom YouTube upload).

I wonder if that's the same guy who chewed through my coax and caused my internet to go out for two days until repairs could be made?

By the way, that has happened twice. We have some hungry critters here in Texas!

 

[RadDave]

Years ago, the western part of the city where we live was more forested and we use to get a lot of raccoons and opossums getting into our garbage cans but development over the decades has eliminated their habitat, so now rare for us to see a raccoon - but in our neighborhood, coyote sightings are becoming much more common - and black bears are expanding their range from the mountains west into Piedmont, North Carolina. Dave
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[harryb2448]

We have some hungry critters here in Texas!

Too right Charlie and most of 'em are on two legs!!