25th February 2026

On cameras in the home

I saw this story online today, about a man who gained access to 7000 robot vacuum cleaners. All he wanted was to be able to control his robot vacuum using a playstation controller. And it reminded me of something. When I was younger, I had free roam of the internet, as many of you will know, it was a wild place back then, with all kinds of weird stuff, and fun and bizzare ways to spend your time.

There used to be this website which held a directory of direct IP addresses, which could be put into the address bar to view a live feed from a private camera. This had resulted due to the improper securing of networks.

The workplace feeds were generally innocuous enough - a bicycle shop, the street outside, they were largely public locations. But what was really scary was that many of these cameras were on, or inside, people's houses. These were people with families, children, who had no idea that someone might be spying on them from inside their home. Some of the sites hosted on these IPs were even interactive - people had the ability to move the cameras or zoom in. Aside from the safety risks for children, it was also a prime method to scout out for a robbery, track a person's movements. It was insane.

After witnessing this, I've always been very careful about having cameras inside or around my home. I have certainly looked into getting cameras a few times, but only ever the closed circuit kind. I don't trust ring doorbells. I don't trust robot vacuums that can see inside my house. I don't want anything where anyone might be able to look into my home remotely.

Nowadays, the IP camera directories that are easy to find are more properly moderated, with private cameras being removed. But many of these these cameras with open network access are likely still available to view, since the owners are likely not aware of this issue. And I don't want to research into whether there are still less moderated directories. I don't want to know. The point is that technology is always changing, but what never changes is the fact that people need to think twice before putting a camera that connects to the internet inside their home.