Concerns about people using Wyze Indoors

This is a Psychological analysis of why people use Cameras indoor in a rant. To be completely honest people you should not be using cameras to spy on your own children, husband, wife, even the dog (Maybe in a dog room) If you need a Support dog due to PTSD then Certify your dog to be with you even at work as a therapy dog if your dog means that much to you obviously your mental state can not make it through the day without your Service dog. My concerns are solely based on the safety and security of your children and how to keep people from entering your home and selling videos like voyeurism of your loved ones.

Concerns: Having cameras in your house shows a lack of trust of others, that lack of trust caries on to other arguments and gestapo type of leadership that rarely leads to a loving home. I have noticed some people invite hackers to look at their children in there homes by not securing there networks with complicate passwords instead they complain and blame the company for their ignorance. I for one personally believe that cameras should only be used to benefit the community outside your house, People trying to gain entry to your house or your neighbor house or proof to the insurance company the cars were broken into or a drunk driver side swiped everyones car when going down your street are great ways to use the camera, I have no problems to use the cameras for Bird watching and even hunters can use it to see what deers are coming around on their property, To extend on that though Coyotes and mountain lions or bears that are predators can be spotted with wyze cameras helping your family to stay safe and indoor until the threat leaves. What about the kids playing outside? That is a good question, I would assume many neighbors will have cameras in the future so if your child gets visited by a stranger everyone will have them on camera, but still hackers will always be able to access cameras somehow because somebody somewhere that do not read instruction and not change there router password from “PASSWORD” to a real difficult password. Once again Security starts with you, your sanity and how you perceive people around you and how they perceive you back is all on you so please becareful in turning the camera inside on your family.

Suggestions: I suggest buying the $20 Wyze sense kit that contains the Sensor, The sensor can notify you if your windows, doors are open or left open after a certain amount of time like if your toddler of 3 years old opens the door and runs outside obviously leaves the door open will notify you that your door is wide open. You can buy the Black ball sensors that will sense movement all around your house, stairs, kitchen, bathroom without compromising your family sense of trust. (Pretty much in a nutshell your home should not be a prison). just a few ideas that I have implemented in my house. My three camera location for my cameras are front door, Back sliding fenced yard, and Trash can area (Racoons or stray dogs love to tip over or people trying to get in my fence by jumping on my City trash can to get in my backyard or peeping toms).

About me: I have a four year degree at Miami Dade College in Criminal Justice, I have worked as a police officer and as a soldier in the U.S. Air Force, Worked for an electrician installing security cameras then Started my own security company 20 years ago installing security cameras, Home networks, Servers, Computer repair, (Anything to make money you know what I mean) Today I am a disabled Vet at home writing small programs, mostly Streaming and reading people’s comments, Commenting on Wyze for me is like helping people make sense of their ignorance by educating them and hopefully making them better aware of their surroundings.

Last but not least if your a single college student and your personal things goes missing like money in your room then yes I agree with putting up a camera to watch over your personal belongings, I remember my dorm days and people called it borrowing without returning. I never got my radio back, or USB back, or my recorder back, So if your a college student this is not for you this rant is about keeping pedophiles or people from recording your children and selling it out in the market as voyeur.

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You’re presenting a very narrow view about why someone may use a camera indoors. It doesn’t have to have anything to do with trust issues or PTSD. For example, when we had a new puppy, we simply enjoyed checking in on her when we were away, it was that simple. A camera used as a baby monitor can be comforting to someone and isn’t necessarily spying. In the case of my wife’s licensed daycare, it was a state requirement to have at least an audio monitor where a baby was sleeping if you weren’t in the room with them.

Instead of using your degree to try and put everyone in one box and diagnosing their psychological state or motives, how about realize that your opinion should be for you and that you have no idea what others motives are.

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As another viewpoint, I’m waiting until the actual Wyze outdoor cameras are available to install any cameras outside pointing outward from my house.

In the meantime, since my house is pretty small and ironically all 3 entry doors can be seen by placing a camera in a particular location, I bought a Wyze Cam Pan and have it in that location and triggered event recording is only configured for the overnight hours. It provides me some “security” overnight but isn’t recording the rest of the day.

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The mistake here is one that gets made when someone is “educated” in a topic and fails to see variables. If your dealing with something like math, 2+2=4, but people are unique and complicated. If a person does A, it doesn’t always mean it’s because of B. With people and all their unique lives and experiences, a person doing A or B may be due to an alphabet soup of reasons, some great, some bad, and everything in between.

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Which is more important to you, trust or safety?

I have a dog who almost started a fire. He turned on the stove all by himself.

While out, I saw smoke on camera and a very listless dog. Whatever was on top of the stove, was already smoking. Had I arrived a few minutes later, the place would have been on fire.

There is this thing called, projection. Get help while you can.

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There are a myriad of good and legitimate reasons a person might want cameras inside their home, not the least of which is to watch over it for burglars when one is not home. I’m lucky in that my home is never empty, someone is always home, so my 3 cams are all outside covering front & back yards, porch, entrances, driveway, etc. I have had things stolen from my shed & yard in the past, so I have a good reason to need video coverage of my property. I don’t need cams anywhere inside my home. I think your rant reveals more about the author than those the rant appears to target or chastise. How someone chooses to monitor & safeguard their own property & possessions is not for me to pass judgement. Anyone who has raised teenagers knows all about “trust” and how it can be valued, taken for granted, lost, or even re-gained at that age. Not everybody has the same domestic situation. OpSec is indeed important. People should use complex passwords on their Wifi routers to ensure privacy.

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I have indoor cameras solely for the purpose of having them on when we are away from home-and they serve the same purpose as my exterior cameras, peace of mind.

If we are home, they are turned off and unplugged. When we expect to leave we plug them in and turn them on.

As someone already mentioned, your post comes from an extremely narrow point of view. Perhaps some extended reflection on all uses of cameras like the Wyze cams would be best prior to unleashing a rant such as this.

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I would piggy back on this idea by 1) agreeing that indoor cameras can and do serve a myriad of purposes, as outlined above, and 2) an even better solution that I’ve deployed is plugging the indoor cameras into smart outlets.

When I leave home, the smart outlets turn on, thereby supplying power to the Wyze cameras, which apparently remember their last state (that is, when the switch is powered on, the camera gets power, turns on, and immediately begins capturing data to SD card, and notifying me of events as I have it configured).

Conversely, when I approach my house, the smart outlets turn off, thereby cutting power to the Wyze cameras. In this way, not only are the camera “Turned Off”, but they don’t have power. They cannot be accessed by any means, and the produce zero network traffic.

Like the idea? Get yourself some of these:

https://www.belkin.com/us/p/p-f7c063/

The work will Google, Alexa, and Apple Homekit.

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You’re hyping Wyze’ smart plug competitor on its own forum?

Sure, why not? What’s wrong with healthy competition?

Unlike the Wyze branded outlets, these support all major third-party IoT integrations (as I stated above), and by using a competitors device to control power to the Wyze cameras, I’m increasing my security profile (defense in depth).

Ever heard the phrase “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket”?

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But not in Wyze forum, that’s not good form.

To each their own. I have purchased no less than a dozen Wyze cams and the sensor integration kits, recommended the product to friends (resulting in dozens more purchases)…

I’m not out here attacking them; I enjoy their products. But in a discussion about the “Concerns about people using Wyze Indoors”, I’m suggesting practical methods to diversify your vendor sourcing in a meaningful way that provides real-world enhanced security.

EDIT: I want to attempt to better articulate. Consider the issue Wyze had 3 weeks ago. Many couldn’t even get logged back into the app for 24 hours, let alone use the app to manage their IoT devices. At least I was able to ensure the cameras were powered down while all that was happening, and I was not at home to simply unplug them. Correct me if I’m wrong, but the same could not be said of their smart plugs during that incident, correct?

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I have no problem with your stance of using other brands. I use a Wyze product competitor. I like competition myself.

But to recommend it and even show the link, here in a Wyze forum, again, that’s isn’t good form.

Noted. I respect your opinion.

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Are you the only one in the house? Otherwise (my case) how do you control that it turns OFF if “anyone” is in the house and would turn ON when “everyone” has left? My modem/router does not have IFTTT hook, how else? I wonder if the Wyze thermostat (future coming) will have that ability via some geo-location integration.

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No, not the only one in house. Well, I’m an Apple Homekit user for one.

Using Homekit, the logic that can be applied is “Turn on switch when last person leaves”/“Turn off switch when first person arrives”.

Another reason why I chose a competitor that provides Homekit integration.

Let me take a look at some other, non-Apple solutions; I have dozens of devices from equally as many vendors; some use Homekit, others IFTTT, and yet others their own app running on smartphone to create rules and triggers…

What’s your current setup? I’ll try to find a way that fits your needs…

EDIT: Your modem doesn’t require an IFTTT hook for IFTTT integration. Just an FYI. IFTTT runs as an app on your smartphone, and its logic is cloud based.

EDIT 2: Homekit is excellent at this logic; it can also be “Turn on/off when anyone leaves/arrives” or even “Turn on/off when this particular person leaves/arrives”.

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Correct. I don’t trust thieves.

I have never read of anyone being able to connect directly to Wyze cameras from outside or within a network.
If you can people would love to know how.:slightly_smiling_face:

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Trust but verify.
I use cameras in the house to monitor workers, dogs, turkey cooking, sump pumps, and about 30 years ago I mounted a video cam in the kid’s playroom (about 15x40) to monitor the disputes of our 4 children (ages 5 to 13) so I could “go to videotape” to settle a dispute.

Seems like it’s more about somebody that has to much time on their hands and it was aFriday night.

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I found that people generally have a tell. When someone does weird stuff it’s usually obvious or at least detectable,

You, sir, were never a soldier.

I don’t usually hear Air Force folks refer to themselves as “soldiers”
I wasn’t in the Air Force, I was in the Navy, but I’m a member of my local VFW post and I can’t ever recall any of the Air Force guys calling themselves that. It’s definitely not used by us squid types. Sailor, squid or just plain vet, but never soldier.

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