Hidden Security Cameras

[Fredkrueger100]

We use WYZE cams. I've read about the hacking of the nanny cams, etc. If someone wants to look at my nekkid butt and get all excited over it, they are one sick puppy.
Seriously, these are cams that require home wifi to operate. They cost about $26 bucks each on Amazon or if you go directly to the WYSE web site they are $20 with no tax for Ok, and just plug into the wall with a USB adaptor, then you marry the wifi to your Iphone or Droid. Takes about 20 seconds. Then you can be anywhere in the country and look at what is going on in your home in High Definition if you have a good enough signal. 1080p with high def.
When we were in South Tx over the winter I had three cams activated at home, one is a pan cam that has a 360 degree ability to pan around the room manually or it follows someone walking through the house in auto mode.
You get free cloud storage for "events" when the cam detects motion or sound, and you can calibrate the cam to what level of noise or movement you want easily.
The cams also have a slot for a micro SD card to record motion or take pics. They can live stream as well.
While we were gone, I'd get push notifications of sound first, and then motion. It was always the housekeeper coming in through the garage door that created the sound and then her walking into the garage and finally into the house, then the other cams would pick her up and send 15 second "event" clips to the cloud. So, even if someone saw the cams and stole them, you still have that cloud storage to look back on. When she is there, I can easily turn off the notifications and "event" clips so it doesn't become a PITA getting all the notifications.
I know of a case where a burglar pulled the meter on a house before breaking in to disable the cams. The way around that is to have a battery backup system for the wifi and the cams that would still allow storage in the cloud even though the house electricity is cut off as long as the battery was active.
In our RV, we sometimes leave the dog while on excursions. I take one of these little cams and put it on the counter looking at the door for somebody entering, and also put a small digital thermometer to the side so we can check on the dog and see that the AC is running and the dog is staying cool while we are gone. Makes the helicopter dog mom less stressed out if you know what I mean.
It also works with Alexa if you have that system.

On my phone, all of the house cams automatically tile on the screen and if I want to view one, you just touch it, and it removes the other cams and you can go full screen with the single cam.
Check the reviews on my links.

WYZE cam web site: https://www.wyze.com/

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Wyze-Indoor-Wireless-Camera-Vision/dp/B076H3SRXG

Edit: if your worried about someone hacking into your WYZE cams, they can be turned off while home and back on when you leave the home from your phone. It’s that simple.
The night vision is very good as well.

I use these too. So far it has been great. I use mine to watch my dogs when I’m at work and I can talk to them too!

 

[SlugSlinger]

I was this ‘’ close to buying some of these until I read the recent reviews. We’re these concerned in this thread as I didn't see them.

BEWARE, RECORDS WHEN SHUT OFF!!
EDITED: BEWARE! I previously gave this camera a Five Star review. I loved them, until today when I learned that they record Sound & Motion when they are TURNED OFF. I would turn them ON whenever I left my apartment and turned them OFF when I came home. Today I discovered, quite by accident, that the 2 cameras were recording ALL DAY LONG! One captured a cell phone conversation and another captured me completely naked when I was changing clothes. While the sound & motion was going on I received NO alerts of this activity. This hasn't happened before. I am horrified! Now I am being spied on in my own home. I now have both cameras unplugged & facing down. I can't tell you what is wrong. I do not recommend buying this camera.

Camera sending traffic to non-aws servers located outside us. No visibility / control over security of my own data in the cloud.
Not sure about how secure it is. They say they utilize a 3rd party called ThroughTek (offices in china and japan - none in US) to handle the transfer of videos. Wyze Cam claims the content is sent securely to aws. Examining the network traffic from camera shows that content is routed thru many providers including AWS, Linode (US) Vultr/Choopa (europe) and Aliyum/Alibaba (china). They seem to also utilize NTP server in Russia. To get more details.. search on web for "WyzeCam sending data to servers other than AWS" and you will find a Reddit article. How does Wyze ensure that ThroughTek is not eavesdropping?

For me to trust Wyze Cam, I need to have clear control over end to end encryption of my data to ensure no 3rd party has any way of accessing my videos. Why can't the data be sent directly from my cam to AWS (s3 bucket)? Why can I not have access to AWS logs (s3 logs) to review which other IP address has accessed (or attempted to access) my content? Just claiming that this is a secure solution, doesn't work for me.

Other than this security concern that I have, the end user experience is great for the camera in other respects. Of course the price is super good.


Spy alert!!!!!
The camera video quality is definitely good, but there is no privacy... Since there is no way to use the camera locally without their app and just using a regular app like "ip cam viewer" that simply uses RTSP, I ended up putting an SD card on it and disabling its internet access by assigning an IP that is restricted by my router...

Well, to my surprise, the camera is CHINESE intelligent and decided to change its macaddress to a new one (completely different from the one in the back label) in order to gain a new IP from my router and regain internet access.

Definitely not a safe cam for indoors...

(I should appear as a verified purchase... Although I bought the item directly from wyze I used amazon payments to pay for it).

 

[dennishoddy]

I was this ‘’ close to buying some of these until I read the recent reviews. We’re these concerned in this thread as I didn't see them.

BEWARE, RECORDS WHEN SHUT OFF!!
EDITED: BEWARE! I previously gave this camera a Five Star review. I loved them, until today when I learned that they record Sound & Motion when they are TURNED OFF. I would turn them ON whenever I left my apartment and turned them OFF when I came home. Today I discovered, quite by accident, that the 2 cameras were recording ALL DAY LONG! One captured a cell phone conversation and another captured me completely naked when I was changing clothes. While the sound & motion was going on I received NO alerts of this activity. This hasn't happened before. I am horrified! Now I am being spied on in my own home. I now have both cameras unplugged & facing down. I can't tell you what is wrong. I do not recommend buying this camera.

Camera sending traffic to non-aws servers located outside us. No visibility / control over security of my own data in the cloud.
Not sure about how secure it is. They say they utilize a 3rd party called ThroughTek (offices in china and japan - none in US) to handle the transfer of videos. Wyze Cam claims the content is sent securely to aws. Examining the network traffic from camera shows that content is routed thru many providers including AWS, Linode (US) Vultr/Choopa (europe) and Aliyum/Alibaba (china). They seem to also utilize NTP server in Russia. To get more details.. search on web for "WyzeCam sending data to servers other than AWS" and you will find a Reddit article. How does Wyze ensure that ThroughTek is not eavesdropping?

For me to trust Wyze Cam, I need to have clear control over end to end encryption of my data to ensure no 3rd party has any way of accessing my videos. Why can't the data be sent directly from my cam to AWS (s3 bucket)? Why can I not have access to AWS logs (s3 logs) to review which other IP address has accessed (or attempted to access) my content? Just claiming that this is a secure solution, doesn't work for me.

Other than this security concern that I have, the end user experience is great for the camera in other respects. Of course the price is super good.


Spy alert!!!!!
The camera video quality is definitely good, but there is no privacy... Since there is no way to use the camera locally without their app and just using a regular app like "ip cam viewer" that simply uses RTSP, I ended up putting an SD card on it and disabling its internet access by assigning an IP that is restricted by my router...

Well, to my surprise, the camera is CHINESE intelligent and decided to change its macaddress to a new one (completely different from the one in the back label) in order to gain a new IP from my router and regain internet access.

Definitely not a safe cam for indoors...

(I should appear as a verified purchase... Although I bought the item directly from wyze I used amazon payments to pay for it).

Have you posted this on the WYZE cam forums that has direct access to their developers? Be interesting to see the response.