I used to have a security system setup in my apartment that included door and motion sensors but no security cameras. I thought it would make me feel safer, but the motion sensor was frequently triggered by shadows, which activated a loud alarm. It was jarring when I was home, but even more worrisome when I was away and got notifications on my phone. With no camera, I was left wondering what happened and if my pets were OK.
Cameras now give me peace of mind, but I have a love/hate relationship with them. They offer a level of safety knowing that I can quickly make sure everything is well at home even if I’m miles away. But you do expose yourself to privacy risks. You should take precautions if you want to use a security camera in your home. We break down what you should keep in mind when shopping for one, and rounded up our favorites after rigorous testing.
Be sure to check out our many other guides, including our picks for the Best Pet Cameras and Best Password Managers.
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Photograph: Kami Home Security
Take Our Advice
How to Stay Safe
Security cameras are great tools, but you need to protect your security from those cameras. You don’t want to find out that someone has accessed your camera and is watching you sit in your bathrobe bingeing trash TV for the third day in a row. Or worse, people have reported being watched during their most intimate moments. This is not to scare you away from security cameras. Follow these tips and you can stay a vigilant and conscious consumer, and still feel like your home is protected while you’re away.
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Avoid no-name cameras: If you type “security camera” into Amazon’s search bar, you’ll come up with hundreds of cheap options from brands you’ve never heard of. We don’t feel comfortable recommending one of them for a product with real privacy threats. You should always go with brands with a solid reputation that clearly outline privacy policies and make it easy to set up security protocols. That doesn’t mean they can’t be hacked—Wyze, Nest, and Ring have all had breaches—but you probably won’t be left in the dark with an unequipped brand that can seemingly disappear the moment something happens.
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Set a strong password and set up two-factor authentication: Setting a strong password that you don’t use for anything else is extremely important. You should also change the password for your Wi-Fi network from the default it comes with if you haven’t already. Set up two-factor authentication as soon as you create an account with the camera brand you’ve bought. It will make it harder for a hacker to gain access to your device, even if they do figure out your password.
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Keep it updated: Make sure you’re frequently checking for software updates (for your camera and router) that can patch any security issues that may have come up. Set your camera to auto-update if possible.
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Turn it off: When you’re home, or at least when you’re doing something personal you wouldn’t want someone to see, turn the camera off. Cover the lens, and/or turn it around for good measure, too.
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Photograph: Wyze
Best Overall
Wyze Cam Pan
With the Wyze Cam Pan, you get a 1080p 360-degree camera for a pretty unbeatable price. OK, it’s not actually a 360-degree camera. It, as the name suggests, pans horizontally on its base so you can see everything around the camera, and the camera can tilt move vertically, too. You can set it up to automatically show a scan of your home when you open the live feed (and it does it in three seconds), or you can manually peruse through with the controls on the app screen.
It’s dead simple to set up with the Wyze app, has easy-to-use controls, and it does a great job of tracking motion. You also get crisp two-way audio, in case you wanted to check in on your pets. The downsides? Motion notifications are slightly delayed when they show up on my phone and the video’s color quality isn’t as nice as some of the other cameras in this guide, but it does the job. It records 12 seconds of activity when it detects motion, and these clips are stored in the cloud for 14 days. You can also store clips locally using your own Micro SD card.
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Photograph: Kami Home Security
Another Great Camera
Kami Indoor Camera
The Kami is very similar to the aforementioned Wyze in that it can pan and tilt 360-degrees to cover all parts of the room. You can easily control exactly where the camera is looking, and motion tracking means you won’t miss anything, even when you aren’t tuning in to the live feed. The motion tracking is not without flaws—once, during testing, the camera focused on my shadow against the wall instead of the action in the room. Still, I like how you can set location bookmarks, like the front door and living room windows, so you can get the camera’s focus back to that exact spot without having to fuss about with the controls.
If you sign up for the Emergency Response plan, you can contact emergency services using an integration with the Noonlight app directly from your camera feed, too. Unfortunately, this camera doesn’t have two-factor authentication, though you can set a pin separate from your password to view the live feed. (If you sign in using Facebook, you can use two-factor authentication, but Facebook has its own security issues.)
