Home security cameras risk family privacy

I had a coffee date with my friend and his wife recently. As we talked, she turned on a camera app on her cell phone to check on her mother in her hometown.

Her father died recently and her mother has been living alone, so she decided to set up cameras all over her mother’s house to check on the woman any time.

She excitedly told me that she could talk to her mother via the camera app as well.

I was not so excited.

I completely disagree with the way people install cameras at every corner of their houses. My house has one camera with a view of my front yard only, to detect incoming strangers.

I really don’t understand why many families are so addicted to cameras they have to install them in their dining rooms and even bedrooms. Their reasons were to check on their children when needed, and to check on their safes.

I feel scared for them, because I have seen hackers offering to sell sensitive videos online, which they collected from home cameras. They had all the videos of you and your husband having sex in your bedroom.

A friend of mine who works in technology also agrees that home cameras are hackers’ target. When the cameras are hacked, all the personal information including a family’s routine is leaked.

And this hacking can be done fairly easily when most home cameras are connected via wifi, with simple passwords, and all the installations are done by unfamiliar technicians sent by camera sellers.