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Show HN: Open-source private home security camera system (end-to-end encryption)

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551 points arrdalan | 1 comments | 30 Nov 24 22:13 UTC | HN request time: 0.238s | source

I needed a security camera inside my house, one that would send motion notifications to my smartphone and would allow me to livestream remotely. However, I could not find one that I could trust due to privacy concerns. Many of them upload the plaintext of videos to their servers and none is fully open-source as far as I know. Therefore, I decided to use my spare time to build one from scratch. Called Privastead (as in Private Homestead), it uses OpenMLS for end-to-end encryption (between the camera local hub and the smartphone) and is mostly implemented in Rust (except for part of the Android app that is implemented in Kotlin). The system is functional now and I've been using it in my own house for the past couple of weeks.

Based on some of the discussions I've seen online, it seems like there are other users who are also concerned with the privacy implications of home security cameras. Therefore, I decided to open source my solution for everyone to use. If you need a privacy-preserving home security camera, please give it a try and provide feedback. Note that trying out the system requires you to have a supported IP camera, a local machine connected to the IP camera, a server, and an Android smartphone. I have put together detailed instructions on setting up the system, which I hope makes it easier for others to get the system up and running.

In addition, consider contributing to the project. The prototype currently has a lot of limitations: mainly that it has only been tested with one IP camera, only allows the use of one camera, and only supports Android. I'll continue to improve the prototype as time permits, but progress will be much faster if there are other contributors as well.

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mattlondon ◴[01 Dec 24 07:52 UTC] No.42286947[source]▶
Having had cameras and a couple of breakin attempts for a while now my biggest must-have for these sort of things is:

- reliable human detection (not just motion)

- integration via some sort of API or MQTT etc.

This project appears to have no "smarts" in terms of human detection nor APIs which is a shame. Just pure motion detection on its own is ok, but you're going to pick up all sorts of things that you don't care about.

E.g. I have foxes that run around my garden all night. I don't care about those. But the second a human steps into my garden and starts approaching the house in the night, all the perimeter floodlights are activated, in-house lights turn on, a fake-yet-loud barking dog MP3 starts playing and I get pushover notifications on my phone that won't stop until I ACK them etc (to wake me up).

So far, from personal experience, the most reliable way to stop an attempted burglary in-progress is for lights to switch on from inside as they are attempting to force entry.

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xyst ◴[01 Dec 24 16:58 UTC] No.42289334[source]▶
> But the second a human steps into my garden and starts approaching the house in the night, all the perimeter floodlights are activated, in-house lights turn on, a fake-yet-loud barking dog MP3 starts playing and I get pushover notifications on my phone that won't stop until I ACK them etc (to wake me up).

Wow this setup seems like overkill for a residential setup. I have lived in “bad” neighborhoods before and have never felt the need to get this kind of setup.

The most I have is a single camera pointed at primary ingress/egress point which is configured to upload to Apple iCloud via “HomeKit Secure Video”.

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1. egberts1 ◴[02 Dec 24 02:45 UTC] No.42292622[source]▶
Curious, does your MP3 plays "Let the Bodies Hit The Floor" by Drowning Pool?

https://genius.com/Drowning-pool-bodies-lyrics