I want to reply to this thread with a little story. It may seem off-topic, but bear with me as it is relevant.
I had a neighbor, and older gentleman who used to purchase nothing but used cars although he had obscene amounts of money. As I got a bit older, I
asked him (his name was Sam) "Sam, why do you never buy a nice brand new car?" He replied to me "because I let other people find out what's wrong with
it first!"
Well, in what seems like a global pandemic "Ive got to have the newest; Ive got to have the greatest; I've got to subscribe to every new service
because its way cool" mindset, what people aren't doing, is letting the more professional amongst us, find out what IS wrong with these services,
gadgets, and toys, before they are actually being used by the populace. Unintended consequences.
For those worried about "cameras turning themselves on" without your authority, I will tell you, knowing much about data and data streams, these
companies are not about to re-invent the wheel with respect to how video data is transmitted. With that firmly in mind, there are (admittedly
low-level geek stuff) several tell-tale signs to video actually BEING transmitted, as well as a recourse for if it were to ACTUALLY happen. It's all
about getting yourself informed and doing some homework. A packet sniffer is absolutely your best friend if you think data that you NEVER intended to
go out, actually IS going out. A packet sniffer, to keep things on a simple level, will allow you to view the contents of network "packets" being
received and sent from a particular IP and MAC address. Video, in this case, will travel in structured packets and always have a particular header
indicating that it IS video. So, you don't need LED's or any visual cues to find out if you are being watched. Also, keeping in mind that these
companies are NOT going to re-invent the wheel, traditionally video transmission is EXTREMELY bandwidth hungry. If you are that worried about it,
prudence would suggest that you keep a watchful eye on your WAN indicator light on your router. If it is flashing almost non-stop quickly, 3 things
then are highly likely: That you are correct about your video, that there is a trojan virus on one or more of your devices that are sucking up
bandwidth, or a LOT of people are using your internet connection at once. The recourse? Simply block the offending outgoing port(s) on your firewall
that allow the transmission of that video (or other undesirable) data.
Yes, keeping yourself safe and feeling secure is a hard job, and a geeky one at that. But in this world; in this day and age, is it not worth it? Then
again, the quote comes to mind "In a world where ignorance is bliss, it is folly to be wise".
edit on 2-5-2013 by alphabetaone because: (no
reason given)
edit on 2-5-2013 by alphabetaone because: (no reason given)
edit on 2-5-2013 by alphabetaone because:
(no reason given)