Always Watching

It seems as if wherever you go nowadays you are always somehow being watched. You go into Dunkin Donuts, you are on camera, visiting your favorite store in the mall, on camera again. Some cities even have red-light cameras monitoring traffic, you are on camera once again. Wherever you go, the question no longer is “am I on camera,” but rather how many different angles am I constantly being viewed from? With this constant worry of being caught on camera in public, most cannot wait to enjoy the privacy of their own homes. But don’t get too comfortable because you might be being watched in your own home as well.

            One of the newest products to the surveillance market, which is growing rapidly, is the IP camera. These cameras are being purchased by numerous homeowners to be used mainly as surveillance, but also have other purposes such as watching what the babysitter is doing while you’re not home. The way this can be done is that the IP cameras can sync with smartphones using the app called CamViewer, and the home owner can constantly watch what is going on in their home from multiple different angles. These cameras are also very appealing for they can directly stream video onto a network, and no longer have to connect to a DVR or control platform. And because of this it makes installation hassle free and cuts installation costs tremendously. These cameras also have high resolution and are very user friendly.

            Although these cameras offer many pros, and may home owners from such things such as theft, there is a very big drawback to these new computers. Because these cameras have an online presence they are vulnerable, and anyone with enough skill to use Google can gain access to the cameras, and in turn view you in your own home. Generally the search engine provides the IP address of the camera and sometimes the name and model number, but with a little more skill and manipulation one can find out a lot more. The key is in typing what to search. If someone were to search “Axis 206M”, which is just a type of IP camera, various things would be listed such as manuals and places where it can be purchased. But if you alter the search ever so slightly to “Live View / Axis 206M,” a small amount of pages will come up that provide links to various 206Ms that are online and able to be viewed. And although most cameras have a password on to protect them, these too are very easy to break into.

            It is very terrifying to think that even in the comfort of your own home there is a chance someone else is watching you. It is important that homeowners take every precaution they can in order to avoid someone from hacking their camera and viewing inside their home. It is a very scary world, that whether you are in public or in your own home, you are always being watched.