Can your home security cameras be hacked?

1. Can your home security cameras be hacked? IP cameras are very common these days. They are quite useful. You can see what is going on inside or outside your home security cameras from anywhere using your mobile phone. video doorbell quality is much better than CCTV and no wiring required. So all in all seems like a good choice. You can buy one from amazon or flipkart and install it yourself. It’s also quite useful if you have elderly at home, or small babies who need constant attention or if you just want to ensure that your new maid is doing her job properly when you are not around! It’s like a pair of extra eyes inside your home, sounds all good ? right? But be very careful what you wish for! Think about it, Google Nest IP camera costs about USD 300, that’s like INR 22000, Ring (an amazon owned company) camera costs about the same, on the other hand, you have typical china made cameras with more features which are sold at amazon or flipkart for just INR 2000–3000, with hundreds of good reviews! (Typically these camera comes with mobile apps like yoosee, IPC360, smartlife, 360eye, toosee or some funny sounding name)

2. So why do Ring or Google or any good western brand cost so much more? Is it because they look better? Or build quality is better? Or the brand value? Or some other features like alexa or echo integration? The answer is - It’s because these companies ensure privacy! you can be sure that no one else is peaking into your camera, the company itself is not collecting all the video feeds into their server. Read this to get some more context about privacy issue with China’s IP cameras: China's surveillance tech is spreading globally, raising concerns about Beijing's influence So, my suggestion is, if you need one where privacy doesn’t matter, knock yourself out and buy anyone with good reviews from amazon. It will last sometime and once its broken, replace it with another cheap one... there are like 100 options! But if you are buying to use inside your home security, need a long life, post sale support, and peace of mind that no one is looking inside your home security systems, then go for a good one. Ring, Google Nest, Hipcam.. something like that will do; it will cost significantly more but will give you the peace of mind and much better experience overall.