If
you’re
shopping
around
for
a
baby
monitor,
a
pet
camera,
or
a
video
doorbell,
just
a
little
research
can
make
the
world
of
network
security
cameras
feel
insecure.
You
don’t
have
to
look
far
to
find
examples
of
companies
breaking
the
trust
of
their
customers.
Ring,
which
introduced
a
feature
that
lets
police
ask
for
your
footage,
is
the
most
obvious
example.
Even
though
the
company
says
it’s
sunsetting
that
feature,
law
enforcement
can
still
request
footage
from
the
company
in
the
event
of
“emergencies.”
Wyze
had
a
vulnerability
it
knew
about
for
three
years
that
allowed
users
to
see
into
other
people’s
homes,
causing
many
of
us
to
be
done
with
them
entirely.
Eufy
had
its
share
of
issues,
only
admitting
that
its
supposedly
encrypted
videos
were
less
than
encrypted
after
being
repeatedly
asked
by
The
Verge.
Wyze
cameras
and
other
smart
cams
from
major
companies
have
had
vulnerabilities
that
could
make
potential
users
nervous.Image:
Wyze
And
even
if
you
trust
that
a
company
is
going
to
be
a
good
steward
of
your
private
data,
you’ll
likely
have
to
pay
for
it.
Companies
like
Ring
and
Arlo
often
raise
prices
for
their
subscriptions
and,
in
some
cases,
remove
features
you’ve
already
paid
for.
In
addition
to
the
basic
issues
of
security,
some
of
the
technology
behind
these
cameras
has
potential
drawbacks.
First,
relying
on
Wi-Fi
alone
can
be
potentially
spotty
and
risky.
Many
of
the
cameras,
particularly
the
outdoor
ones,
rely
on
battery
technology
that
gives
them
a
relatively
long
life
on
a
single
charge
—
but
at
the
expense
of
not
running
24/7
by
default.
What’s
more,
AI
detection
varies
wildly
in
quality
and
accuracy
from
model
to
model.
And
very
few
of
the
cameras
I
tested
for
this
article
could
be
activated
and
managed
without
downloading
another
tedious
app.
I
feel
very
strongly
that
every
single
IP
camera
should
be
mandated
by
law
to
not
require
an
app.
You
should
be
able
to
connect
them
to
your
network
or
put
them
in
hotspot
mode
and
then
do
the
entire
process
via
a
web
browser.
(And
if
I
am
forced
to
sign
up
for
an
additional
brand-only
account,
I
am
going
to
lose
it.)
So
despite
security
cams
being
part
of
a
massive
industry
peddling
a
relatively
straightforward
product,
navigating
the
issues
involved
in
safely
purchasing
and
using
one
can
feel
like
a
chore.
Where
do
you
even
start?
Well,
you
can
start
by
choosing
safe
ways
to
collect
and
store
your
video
footage.
In
this
article,
I’m
not
going
to
talk
about
which
camera
to
buy
or
how
to
install
it
—
instead,
I’m
going
to
look
at
some
of
the
more
reasonable,
flexible
options
out
there
that
you
can
use
to
keep
your
video
feed
safe
and
private,
from
simplest
to
most
complex.
Safe
and
simple:
Apple’s
HomeKit
Secure
Video
I
generally
do
not
trust
most
companies
with
my
personal
data,
but
of
the
bigger
companies
out
there, Apple
tends
to
be
the
least
egregious
in
terms
of
basic
security
for
smart
home
applications.
If
you
aren’t
the
kind
of
weirdo
who
enjoys
building
a
server
or
screwing
around
with
homelab
stuff,
you
could
do
far
worse
than
a
HomePod
Mini
or
an
Apple
TV
as
the
brain
that’s
running
your
smart
home,
especially
if
you
use
an
iPhone
on
a
daily
basis.
One
of
the
nice
little
perks
of
this
ecosystem
is
HomeKit
Secure
Video,
Apple’s
proprietary
method
for
streaming
from
cameras.
HomeKit
Secure
Video
does,
however,
come
with
some
caveats.
You
do
need
to
be
part
of
the
Apple
ecosystem,
including
an
iCloud
subscription.
It
isn’t
perfect
and
has
many
limitations,
but
if
your
No.
1
priority
is
security,
then
you
could
do
far
worse.
And
hey
—
it
means
you
don’t
have
to
download
a
separate
app
from
the
camera
manufacturer.
Stay
in-camera:
save
to
an
SD
card
One
nice
thing
about
a
lot
of
these
cameras
is
that
they
allow
you
to
save
to
a
microSD
card.
MicroSD
cards
that
hold
a
huge
amount
of
data
are
dirt
cheap
now,
and
these
cameras
all
run
pretty
efficiently.
I
was
able
to
pull
saved
videos
from
most
of
them
directly
to
my
phone.
One
camera
I
tested,
the
EufyCam
3C
with
the
HomeBase
3,
allows
a
thumb
drive
to
be
connected
to
it
to
offload
footage
of
triggered
events.
Another,
the
Tapo
C420S2,
actually
comes
with
a
little
baby
hub
that
will
hold
a
microSD
card
with
up
to
256GB.
The
HomeBase
3
from
Eufy
allows
a
thumb
drive
to
be
connected
to
offload
video
footage.Photo:
Eufy
In
short,
for
most
people,
keeping
these
devices
running
with
a
local
SD
card
instead
of
opting
for
cloud
services
can
be
more
than
enough.
Now,
let’s
get
into
the
more
complicated
stuff.
Keep
it
in-house:
run
your
own
NAS
I
love
my
NAS
(Network
Attached
Storage)
and
think
a
lot
more
people
should
have
one.
If
you
don’t
know
what
it
is,
it’s
basically
a
baby
server
you
shove
hard
drives
into
and
attach
to
your
router.
There’s
tons
of
stuff
you
can
do
with
one.
You
can
use
it
to
store
movies,
have
it
function
as
a
Jellyfin
(or
Plex,
if
that’s
your
thing)
server,
or
stream
your
music
and
then
access
it
anywhere.
If
someone
I
know
needs
a
file
on
my
server,
I
can
just
send
them
a
link
from
my
phone.
You
can
also
use
a
NAS
solution
to
record
footage
from
your
security
cameras.
And
when
it
comes
to
encryption,
it
can
be
very
secure.
While
a
NAS
solution
can
be
a
hassle
to
get
going,
it’s
less
of
a
pain
than
other
methods.
When
I
was
in
the
market,
I
went
with
Synology,
and
while
it’s
not
the
most
open
platform,
it
is
one
of
the
most
robust
off-the-shelf
options.
Synology’s
security
software,
Surveillance
Station,
is
considered
one
of
the
better
pieces
of
software
you
can
get
when
it
comes
to
monitoring
your
home.
(I
have
also
seen
people
recommend
Blue
Iris).
Synology’s
Surveillance
Station
is
also
compatible
with
a
whole
slew
of
cameras.
On
top
of
that,
Synology
offers
cloud
backups
as
well
(per
camera,
for
a
price).
Again
setting
up
a
NAS
solution
is
no
minor
task
for
a
lot
of
people,
but
in
general,
Synology
makes
it
easier
than
most.
Alternatively,
you
can
just
buy
an
off-the-shelf
dedicated
network
video
recorder
(NVR)
—
more
on
that
in
a
moment.
Meanwhile,
in
order
to
get
my
Synology
NAS
up
and
running,
I
first
had
to
find
some
streams.
Add
flexibility
by
adding
a
stream
In
my
opinion,
the
ability
to
have
a
stream
makes
your
security
system
more
transparent
and
flexible
and
also
allows
setting
up
an
external
DVR.
Many
cameras
support
common
streaming
protocols,
the
most
common
being
RTSP
and
the
ONVIF
security
standard.
In
general,
cameras
that
can
do
this
have
far
more
utility.
You
can
play
an
RTSP
stream
in
VLC
media
player
(one
of
the
best
free
players
available),
and
OBS
can
be
configured
to
accept
RTSP
streams
if
you
want
to
Twitch
stream
your
house
like
it’s
a
reality
TV
show.
Not
all
cameras
come
with
this
out
of
the
box
for
various
reasons.
Many
battery-run
cameras,
as
previously
mentioned,
cannot
stream
continuously,
which
rules
many
of
them
out.
And
many
smart
cameras
just
don’t
offer
the
feature,
although
Wyze
(if
you
still
trust
it)
has
offered
the
option
to
use
an
alternate
firmware
that
lets
you
use
an
RTSP
stream.
In
general,
though,
several
non-battery
cameras
from
Amcrest,
Reolink,
Tapo,
Hikvision,
and
Dahua
allow
for
this.
Of
the
cameras
I
tested
for
The
Verge,
some
of
the
ones
that
allowed
me
easy
access
to
an
RTSP
stream
were
the
Eufy
cameras
connected
to
the
HomeBase
and
a
model
by
Lorex.
With
that
stream,
I
was
able
to
do
a
lot,
like
add
it
as
a
device
in
OBS.
This
allowed
me
to
create
something
I
call
my
“Bike
Stream”
setup
in
which
I
streamed
myself
watching
to
see
if
anything
happened
to
my
bike.
Thankfully,
nothing
happened
to
my
bike.
But
that’s
just
one
of
many
opportunities
that
having
ready
and
direct
access
to
your
technology
affords
you.
Configure
to
the
max
with
a
dedicated
NVR
If
I
am
being
honest,
I
really
don’t
want
my
NAS
to
run
as
a
network
video
recorder.
That’s
a
fairly
intensive
task,
and
my
NAS
is
already
busy
handling
other
stuff
(like
streaming
FLACs
so
I
can
have
ready
access
to
all
the
DVDs
I
ripped).
And
while
I
am
glad
that
I
have
Surveillance
Station
set
up,
I
would
prefer
I
have
a
piece
of
hardware
dedicated
to
the
task.
Plus,
I
really
wanted
to
see
how
far
into
the
deep
end
I
could
go.
I
really
wanted
to
see
how
far
into
the
deep
end
I
could
go
For
that,
Scrypted
and
Frigate
are
what
I
am
interested
in.
Frigate
is
a
free,
open-source
NVR
with
a
fantastic
Home
Assistant
integration
that
lets
you
really
unlock
the
potential
of
what
you
can
do
with
your
camera
system.
Scrypted
is
an
open-source
plug-in
and
has
support
for
HomeKit
Secure
Video,
even
letting
you
use
it
for
non-HomeKit
Secure
Video
cameras.
I
already
had
HACS
(Home
Assistant
Community
Store)
running,
so
getting
Scrypted
up
and
running
wasn’t
too
hard.
Both
pieces
of
software
are
infinitely
configurable.
And
unlike
other
software
like
Blue
Iris,
you
don’t
pay
fees
to
use
Frigate,
although
you
can
get
custom
AI
models
with
Frigate
Plus
to
support
the
development
of
the
platform.
Scrypted
NVR
and
its
desktop
client,
on
the
other
hand,
are
for
paying
subscribers,
but
there’s
still
a
ton
of
stuff
you
can
do
with
the
software
without
paying.
You
can
run
either
of
them
on
a
Mini
PC
or
a
NUC
with
something
like
an
Intel
N100
processor.
Both
can
also
run
in
a
Docker
container.
Both
can
also
be
paired
with
Google’s
cheap
Coral
accelerator,
which
has
an
Edge
TPU
on
board,
in
either
a
USB
or
M.2
form
factor,
for
hardware
acceleration
of
machine
learning,
massively
lowering
the
hardware
load
for
object
and
facial
detection.
You
can
also
do
tremendously
interesting
stuff
with
Scrypted
and
Frigate.
For
example,
Frigate
can
use
any
ONVIF
camera
with
PTZ
(pan,
tilt,
and
zoom)
to
automatically
track
objects,
and
you
can
use
OpenVino,
a
deep
learning
model
from
Intel.
Got
a
camera
pointed
at
your
bird
feeder?
Frigate
lets
you
do
the
integration
“Who’s
At
My
Feeder?”
to
identify
specific
bird
species,
or
you
can
try
its
“someone
is
parking
in
my
driveway”
feature.
Not
to
be
the
open-source
software
guy,
but
the
actual
possibilities
here
are
extensive
and
truly
exciting.
Create
your
own
DIY
camera
If
you
want
to
be
that
person,
you
can
make
your
own
camera.
MediaMTX
is
simple
open-source
software
that
acts
as
a
kind
of
broker
for
video
streams.
With
it,
you
can
easily
turn
a
single
board
computer
like
a
Raspberry
Pi
with
a
connected
camera
into
a
secure,
network-connected
RTSP
camera.
If
you
have
a
Pi
that’s
collecting
dust
and
you
are
technically
inclined,
then
it’s
as
easy
as
throwing
a
camera
on
that
little
guy
and
setting
it
up.
MediaMTX
also
supports
other
standards
like
SRT,
WebRTC,
and
HLS
and
has
a
ton
of
streaming
flexibility
with
how
it
can
be
set
up,
particularly
when
paired
with
something
like
Frigate.
How
deep
can
—
or
should
—
you
go?
If
you
are
really
paranoid
about
your
devices
potentially
phoning
home,
there
are
a
lot
of
ways
to
prevent
them
from
doing
that.
You
can
put
your
cameras
on
a
VLAN
to
isolate
them
or
set
your
cameras
to
have
static
IP
addresses
and
block
them
from
accessing
the
outside
world.
This
is
a
good
practice
but
starts
getting
into
deeper
territory
than
the
average
person
has
the
energy
for.
As
with
most
things
involving
security,
the
question
is:
how
deep
do
you
really
want
to
go?
The
world
of
security
cameras
is
confusing
by
design,
but
in
an
ideal
world,
it
doesn’t
have
to
be.
I
want
a
world
where
these
devices
are
more
transparent
by
design
and
more
secure,
with
fewer
apps
that
clutter
up
my
homescreen.
I
want
a
device
that
does
not
phone
call
external
servers,
with
encrypted
video
as
a
basic
standard
that
lets
me
configure
it
however
I
want
and
actually
have
some
real
fun
for
a
change.
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