Experts warn of risks to privacy posed by home surveillance cameras скачать в хорошем качестве

Experts warn of risks to privacy posed by home surveillance cameras

Indoor surveillance cameras have grown in popularity in recent years. Some people install them at home to keep track of vulnerable members of the household, such as children, older relatives, or even pets. But the growth of the industry has brought reports of criminal abuses of privacy. Many cheap cameras offer no privacy whatsoever, and the footage is available directly to the manufacturer of the camera. Other cameras may promise security but are liable to abuse by unscrupulous companies. We spoke to an expert to find out where the risks lie, and how to protect your privacy if you decide to install a camera at home. This small surveillance camera costs less than NT$1,000. It connects to Wi-Fi and can be controlled remotely with a smartphone. People buy them to watch over pets, children or older relatives at home. CCTV expert Ho Yen-shu says that real-time surveillance cameras like these send their footage to the server of the manufacturer and then on to the user’s phone. They offer no privacy whatsoever. Ho Yen-shu CCTV expert It’s sent straight from this machine to the manufacturer’s server, and then we connect, and bring it down from the server to watch it. So there’s absolutely no privacy to speak of at all. If you want to be sure that your footage isn’t leaked, you need to choose a camera with its own server and IP address. Ho Yen-shu CCTV expert You set your own fixed IP address, and then connect your phone to the server. It will set up some backend firewalls and antivirus software to keep out unwanted hackers and attacks. But some users report experiences where a malicious company sets up the camera and then copies the IP address, so they can steal the footage anyway. Member of public The manufacturer set it up secretly, and he could see my cloud data. I told him the quality of the footage was bad. He said to me, “I looked at it on my phone and it was fine, very clear.” And that’s when I realized that my cloud data had been secretly copied. Ho Yen-shu CCTV expert This involves the personal ethics of the manufacturer, because it’s about the personal data of the customer. Ho suggests that apart from demanding your manufacturer wipe their records of your IP address after it’s created, you should also set a new password before using the camera, for a double layer of privacy protection.