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Surveillance is bad enough as it is, I'll never understand why some people install internet-connected CCTV inside their own homes. What's that even for, spying

Surveillance is bad enough as it is, I'll never understand why some people install internet-connected CCTV inside their own homes. What's that even for, spying on your family members? Using a brand like Hikvision is the bizarre cherry on top.

jayski 3y ago
I have exactly those Hikconnect all over my house. I always felt unsafe about them. My house doesn't have a static IP, so obviously the only way for me to connect to them when I'm away is through an intermediary Having some technical networking knowledge I disconnected them from the Internet and set up a VPN where my wife and I first have to connect to prior to viewing the cameras. Why do I surveil my own home? Because I have small children, when my wife and I go out and they stay with a baby sitter it gives us peace of mind to have the ability to verify everything is good. Also although we trust the sitters, we trust them even more knowing they know there's cameras. Why did I get the cheap ass sketchy cameras? Cause I'm a cheap ass. The system I have cost about 2K with installation and spending 2 or 3x was outside our budget.
- unforeseen9991 3y ago
  > My house doesn't have a static IP, so obviously the only way for me to connect to them when I'm away is through an intermediary Dynamic DNS record services have been around almost since the beginning of the public internet, and it's not the only way to deal with a remote location that has a changing IP address. It's far from "obviously the only way for you to connect" - you are just ignorant of your options
scruple 3y ago
We use ours when we're away from home but have people in our home to watch our pets. Otherwise, they're unplugged and sitting in a drawer in my home office.
JumpCrisscross 3y ago
> I'll never understand why some people install internet-connected CCTV inside their own homes. What's that even for, spying on your family members? In case someone breaks in. To keep an eye on the housekeeper. This past winter an ice dam sprung a leak in the roof. I was there and caught it promptly. But had I been away, the damage would have been severe. Cameras would have let me keep an eye on that. I don't think it's worth the tradeoff in terms of privacy. But I can understand someone else deciding differently.
- sspiff 3y ago
  > To keep an eye on the housekeeper. If you can't trust your housekeeper not to steal from you (or do something else you want to catch on camera), you either hired the wrong person or are not paying them a fair wage. Either way, it's a you-problem.
  - fortran77 3y ago
    > or are not paying them a fair wage Did Bernie Madoff and SBF steal because they were not getting a fair wage?
- kypro 3y ago
  Motion sensors make way more sense imo. All you need to know is that someone's there who shouldn't be. What's the value of seeing them sneaking around your home in a balaclava?
  - _a_a_a_ 3y ago
    then you call the police
  - bluefirebrand 3y ago
    The obvious answer is that motion can be made by more things than humans and knowing "there is a person in my house" is more urgent than "something moved in my house" People have pets, etc
dragonwriter 3y ago
> I'll never understand why some people install internet-connected CCTV inside their own homes. What's that even for, spying on your family members? Well, babysitters (there is a reason they are called nannycams), and also often just for local app access to video baby monitors because no one makes consumer devices LAN accessible, they always use internet with a hosted server for app access. > Using a brand like Hikvision is the bizarre cherry on top. The virtual death of brick and mortar retail and the general Amazonization of retail (not just Amazon itself, but the other looks-like-an-online-retailer-but-really-is-an-ungatekept-open-marketplace sites) contributes heavily to that.
squarefoot 3y ago
Making potential intruders uncomfortable. The whole point of protection isn't to stop burglars, as there's no such thing as an impenetrable house, but to delay and discourage them so that they will rather try the next house or, better, move to another area. It may seem harsh, but that's how it works. Surveillance forces them to wear masks, park their cars far away, etc. Regarding HikVision cameras, they're closed and untrustworthy just like every other brand out there; there's a huge list of compromised cameras, and only some of them were from HikVision. I wouldn't feel safe with any camera that I didn't put behind a physical separated and firewalled network that I would access only using Open Source software (read: no proprietary apps).
klyrs 3y ago
> What's that even for, spying on your family members? It's good for making catchy music videos too https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9xxK5yyecRo https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9xxK5yyecRo

jayski 3y ago

I have exactly those Hikconnect all over my house. I always felt unsafe about them. My house doesn't have a static IP, so obviously the only way for me to connect to them when I'm away is through an intermediary Having some technical networking knowledge I disconnected them from the Internet and set up a VPN where my wife and I first have to connect to prior to viewing the cameras. Why do I surveil my own home? Because I have small children, when my wife and I go out and they stay with a baby sitter it gives us peace of mind to have the ability to verify everything is good. Also although we trust the sitters, we trust them even more knowing they know there's cameras. Why did I get the cheap ass sketchy cameras? Cause I'm a cheap ass. The system I have cost about 2K with installation and spending 2 or 3x was outside our budget.

unforeseen9991 3y ago
> My house doesn't have a static IP, so obviously the only way for me to connect to them when I'm away is through an intermediary Dynamic DNS record services have been around almost since the beginning of the public internet, and it's not the only way to deal with a remote location that has a changing IP address. It's far from "obviously the only way for you to connect" - you are just ignorant of your options

scruple 3y ago

We use ours when we're away from home but have people in our home to watch our pets. Otherwise, they're unplugged and sitting in a drawer in my home office.

JumpCrisscross 3y ago

> I'll never understand why some people install internet-connected CCTV inside their own homes. What's that even for, spying on your family members? In case someone breaks in. To keep an eye on the housekeeper. This past winter an ice dam sprung a leak in the roof. I was there and caught it promptly. But had I been away, the damage would have been severe. Cameras would have let me keep an eye on that. I don't think it's worth the tradeoff in terms of privacy. But I can understand someone else deciding differently.

sspiff 3y ago
> To keep an eye on the housekeeper. If you can't trust your housekeeper not to steal from you (or do something else you want to catch on camera), you either hired the wrong person or are not paying them a fair wage. Either way, it's a you-problem.
- fortran77 3y ago
  > or are not paying them a fair wage Did Bernie Madoff and SBF steal because they were not getting a fair wage?
kypro 3y ago
Motion sensors make way more sense imo. All you need to know is that someone's there who shouldn't be. What's the value of seeing them sneaking around your home in a balaclava?
- _a_a_a_ 3y ago
  then you call the police
- bluefirebrand 3y ago
  The obvious answer is that motion can be made by more things than humans and knowing "there is a person in my house" is more urgent than "something moved in my house" People have pets, etc

dragonwriter 3y ago

> I'll never understand why some people install internet-connected CCTV inside their own homes. What's that even for, spying on your family members? Well, babysitters (there is a reason they are called nannycams), and also often just for local app access to video baby monitors because no one makes consumer devices LAN accessible, they always use internet with a hosted server for app access. > Using a brand like Hikvision is the bizarre cherry on top. The virtual death of brick and mortar retail and the general Amazonization of retail (not just Amazon itself, but the other looks-like-an-online-retailer-but-really-is-an-ungatekept-open-marketplace sites) contributes heavily to that.

squarefoot 3y ago

Making potential intruders uncomfortable. The whole point of protection isn't to stop burglars, as there's no such thing as an impenetrable house, but to delay and discourage them so that they will rather try the next house or, better, move to another area. It may seem harsh, but that's how it works. Surveillance forces them to wear masks, park their cars far away, etc. Regarding HikVision cameras, they're closed and untrustworthy just like every other brand out there; there's a huge list of compromised cameras, and only some of them were from HikVision. I wouldn't feel safe with any camera that I didn't put behind a physical separated and firewalled network that I would access only using Open Source software (read: no proprietary apps).

klyrs 3y ago

> What's that even for, spying on your family members? It's good for making catchy music videos too https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9xxK5yyecRo https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9xxK5yyecRo