What private and secure home security camera options exist, does one exist at all?

Privacy Questions
1

Is there an actual, simple, private, secure outdoor home security camera or doorbell camera? I knew finding one would be more difficult than buying a Nest, but I never thought it would be impossible.

Every time I think I find something, it won’t work. Eufy was my first choice, but that plan died for the obvious reasons. Then I looked to build something, but that became more complicated and expensive (thousands of dollars) than it needs to be for what really is a simple doorbell camera, and it still had security problems.

I found UCam, a “blockchain camera” which had good reports when it was first released, and is still around. UCam is cheap, but it is only an indoor camera. Even if I could put it in a weather resistant case, it won’t withstand the temperatures outside.

Has anyone used UCam anyway?

Am I really out of luck and what I want does not exist? I know there will be tradeoffs and I can’t have everything at the perfect price, but right now I am coming up with almost nothing.

2

Check these sources

3

What you are saying is that there is nothing that will do what I want and meet my requirements for privacy and security. Is that right?

4

Honestly I don’t know, it depends on your threat model and what you are trying to protect with the cameras. I don’t have any experience in home surveillance but maybe confining your IOTs behind a firewall could help? I don’t know, it seems quite tricky to set up an entire system if you want to have total control.

5

Sounds like buzzword usage. Their website is giving me " Error establishing a database connection" lol.

Probably not, I opted to go with Ubiquti and a UNVR, because their software is pretty good.

For a cheaper option, you could get some camera that supports the ONVIF standard and use it with your own NVR.

There’s a lot around, I’d probably start with Motion or Shinobi or possibly Kerberos

Also this review thread. This page also lists a number of solutions, though I haven’t personally used any of them.

6

Thanks for the reply.

I looked into the Ubiquti and a UNVR a while ago, but I need simple and that system does a lot more than I need. Take that it has a lot of extra features and combine that with the high price, and it cost too much to justify for this project.

I checked out those links and there are some possible options, especially if I keep the system behind my firewall. But looking at the other options in those links, I think my choices might be to buy Ubiquti/UNVR for about $1,000 or to build my own solution to “save money” and have it cost $2,500.