Comment on Why We’re Pulling Our Recommendation of Wyze Security Cameras
Rediphile@lemmy.ca 1 year agoMe neither. But building an entirely off-site video monitoring server is a bit over my head. So I just use cameras like this when I’m not home.
Switch to Unifi. It’s enterprise-grade hardware and high quality software at consumer prices. If you know networking, you can set them up without connecting them to the internet while still being able to access them outside your network. If not, you can just use their free web portal to access your cameras. It’s probably easier than Wyze, and it’s certainly more secure.
I don’t normally like to shill brands on the internet, but for these people I make an exception.
I also use Unifi but it’s worth mentioning that Unifi Protect (current offering) requires an online Unifi account and a Unifi DVR, whereas the older Unifi Video required a local account and could be run on your own hardware. I like that my videos are not stored in the cloud, but I don’t know enough about how Unifi handles security to confirm that they couldn’t allow another user to stream video off your hardware directly. I’m not too concerned about the risk because I just use these for my front yard and it’s pretty convenient.
Are you sure? I currently have an online account (because it was easier to give other people access and I too only have these watching my yard), but I remember when I first set it up in my home I was using a local account created in the DVR’s portal (a Cloudkey Gen 2). The web portal is hosted on the cloudkey, you can access it via any web browser, and the cameras will record to it without an internet connection.
I could’ve sworn you could host the camera server without a Unifi DVR, but apparently not. The network stuff can be though. I guess that’s important to keep in mind, although I’d be surprised if they removed the ability to use the DVR without an online account.
I know there was an issue a while ago that you couldn’t connect directly to your cameras using iOS via the LAN. It had to go online. I remember now a hastily rolled out patch in response to a data breach. So to answer your question, I’m not 100% sure. I use my cameras like you do but this is an important topic for someone who doesn’t want their system online in any capacity.
Chickenstalker@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Any security system hosted in the cloud is inherently unsecure or at the very least a privacy nightmare. Invest in being friendly with neighbours.