Indoor cctv camera... creepy?

I do use the Family Room cam in one instance when someone's home. If my wife is home alone and a repair or service person is coming in the house, she calls me when he arrives, and I'll monitor while the person is there. If anything bad starts to happen, I can set off the alarm remotely and call the authorities.
 
Kevin
 
I'm single and have cams in the living areas to watch my dogs and to monitor the house for intruders while at work.   I've had a few people mention the cameras, which are in plain site. Most forget they are there, including misc GFs etc.
 
I imagine a wife unit could be creeped by it. I once installed a audio intercom to monitor the basement to hear when the washer/dryer were completed, and wife at the time had a complete tizzy that I was "spying" on her.   I was divorced a few years later after finding out that I would have been extremely well served had I actually been spying on her.
 
Wondering how it would go if I somone else were living there...  Probably not so good I'm sure. I'm positive my last live in would have had issues with a cam, but that's because she had reasons not to want to be on camera....   I'm apparently better at choosing IP cams than I am at choosing GFs...
 
Quite the dilemma.....   Hmmm...
 
About a month ago I bought an IP cam.  The box was sitting on my desk, then I took it with me out of town.  My wife thought I had installed it in the house and started looking for it.
 
A few years ago in our last house - we were remodeling every inch of it while we lived in it...  wife called in for her normal check-in while I was at work and I asked how the painting was going.  She was surprised at first, then quite bugged by it... her plan was to surprise me that she was painting the master bedroom and closet, but I had been showing off the cool capabilities of the system to someone when I noticed motion in the MBR at an unusual time as well as several doors and windows open that would never otherwise be open.  That really bothered her and she's been cautious of the automation system and has openly expressed that cameras in the house are not OK... but she doesn't care if I put in baby cams to watch the kids; it's a balance to prove it's only for good.
 
You should see how heated she gets if I use "Find My Phone" to see where she's at!  :ph34r:  After 17 years together neither of us are hiding anything - but still, people deserve privacy and some people need that feeling of independence.  
 
My wife is the one that asked me to install a 'pet' cam, so that she can watch her cats while we are away.  They mostly hang out in our sunroom, so it was pretty easy to determine where to put the camera.  Later, I also installed another 'pet' cam in our living room, where the cats tend to sleep.  Both cameras are plainly visible, and both have a privacy button that you can push to stop the picture from transmitting.  Wife isn't creeped out by them. She knows they are there, and the odds of someone finding them on the internet are very, very low.  Of course, anything is possible, If they were 'discovered' and someone hacked in to them to view, 99% of the time they would just see an empty room or a couple of cats laying around!
 
I have 3 indoor cameras with audio inside the house in addition to the exterior cameras.  They are mounted in "common areas" of house at vulnerable areas (back slider door off family room, main hallway of bedrooms and living room/front door).  I have wired the power of these indoors cameras to a relay on my Elk M1 Gold which is driven by rules "When alarm system is armed turn on cameras - when alarm system is disarmed turn off cameras".  This way when the house is occupied the inside cameras are off and when the house is unoccupied the cameras on on!  Thanks to some helpful people in this forum I was able to figure the easiest way to this and works like a charm!!!
 
LindaWCCA said:
I have 3 indoor cameras with audio inside the house in addition to the exterior cameras.  They are mounted in "common areas" of house at vulnerable areas (back slider door off family room, main hallway of bedrooms and living room/front door).  I have wired the power of these indoors cameras to a relay on my Elk M1 Gold which is driven by rules "When alarm system is armed turn on cameras - when alarm system is disarmed turn off cameras".  This way when the house is occupied the inside cameras are off and when the house is unoccupied the cameras on on!  Thanks to some helpful people in this forum I was able to figure the easiest way to this and works like a charm!!!
Click to expand...
IMO that's great - and exactly how I'll implement cameras in my home.
 
That is a great idea. But, I would imagine the cameras just being there would creep some people out.  I'd think that some occupants won't fully believe they are "truly" off.   lol..   But, I'm the guy that is somewhat mistrustful of my laptop's camera :)
 
The mounted cameras might creep someone out but I do have a monitor displayed with all of the cameras and when the power is off, the 3 indorrs cameras have the "loss video signal" displayed in that space so they can see what we see-which is nothing.  I had the idea but no the know how so I got help from others in the forums on some of the details and worked out a couple of others on my own - like how to use one relay for all three cameras to avoud having to add an additional relay bay to panel.  I will post my "how to" over the weekend along with my rules for anyone who is interested.
 
There are various methods depending on what you have available.  If it were me, I'd either use relays to switch the power on/off directly, or more likely, I'd use some sort of scripting to turn the ports of a POE switch on/off.  
 
I think for the best result, a camera that has PTZ which can spin around and face away from anything of use (visibly so people see it's not pointed at them) would be the best approach to ease minds.  This could potentially be managed via relays and the alarm input contacts on the camera if the firmware supports such a thing.
 
LindaWCCA said:
I have 3 indoor cameras with audio inside the house in addition to the exterior cameras.  They are mounted in "common areas" of house at vulnerable areas (back slider door off family room, main hallway of bedrooms and living room/front door).  I have wired the power of these indoors cameras to a relay on my Elk M1 Gold which is driven by rules "When alarm system is armed turn on cameras - when alarm system is disarmed turn off cameras".  This way when the house is occupied the inside cameras are off and when the house is unoccupied the cameras on on!  Thanks to some helpful people in this forum I was able to figure the easiest way to this and works like a charm!!!
Click to expand...
I understand why people like this approach, but to play devil's advocate... this assumes that nothing bad will happen when you are home and it does all the time. Obviously holes can usually be found in most all systems but here's what I was thinking as I read the above:

Someone could pose as a serviceman (or anyone for that matter), approach and knock on the front door... once someone answers they may be able to talk their way inside or just press their way in as soon as the door was opened... gather the family and do harm... and walk back out the front door. What would the evidence show (from the recorded exterior cameras)? The serviceman walking to the door, then leaving a bit later. No interior cameras would have recorded any actions/harm that were done while he was inside...
 
I don't have any cameras on the interior of my home now (I don't feel a need for it), but if I spent the money on them, they are going to be on and recording... I don't understand what is going to happen in public areas of your own home that make your own family feel uncomfortable about having your own cameras present and recording. I absolutely would want to ensure that no one else can access this information, but for my own security/safety... I don't see a problem.
 
Hmmm...with respect to turning on and off recording, the Vivoteks have manual software triggers and can take HTML commands.
Need to look and sending commands when te system arms.
 
Funny, I hear the exact phrase "creepy" whenever I bring it up.  I really just want to put one on the front door and maybe down the most frequented hallway.  But I've been told no many times.  I was allowed to put one in the garage and one in the basement where we have service people working on our well, sprinklers, etc...  If we go away for a while, I set up the cameras regardless of opinion.  Honestly, I'd also love to know what the dog does all day when he's alone.  
 
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