Home Security Cameras From Top Brands Lack Basic Digital Security Measures

This year, CR weighed 10 key criteria more heavily than in the past. “We believe these are essential for consumer protection,” says Maria Rerecich, the senior director of product testing at CR.

These security measures include two-factor authentication, automatic software updates, a visual indicator light that lets you know the camera is active, and email notifications for when a user logs in from a new device or IP address.

Many brands do a good job of adopting these security measures, and most earn a Very Good rating for data security in our tests. But there is definitely room for improvement.

For data privacy, we examine privacy policies and other documentation to see whether manufacturers disclose how they collect your data, who they share your data with, whether they attempt to minimize data collection, and whether consumers have a way to request copies of their data or ask for it to be deleted.

“Our evaluation for data privacy leans heavily on companies explicitly stating how they are using, storing, and sharing consumers' data,” says Rerecich. “Since wireless security cameras capture and transmit sensitive data from inside a consumer's home, we have adjusted our scoring methodology to more accurately reflect the shortcomings of these privacy policies.”

As a result of our scoring change, no camera model now receives a data privacy rating higher than Good, which is the middle of our ratings scale.

Consumer Reports reached out to the nine brands that don’t offer two-factor authentication and asked if and when they plan to implement it. We received responses from these seven companies:

• Blue by ADT will add multifactor authentication before the end of the year.
• Canary will add it soon.
• D-Link is planning to add the feature to its mobile app before Christmas 2020.
• Eufy is starting to deploy two-factor authentication in the U.S. now.
• Honeywell Home is looking into ways to add it.
• Logitech says the feature is being “actively developed.”
• TP-Link is “targeting” a release for the feature in Q4.

To evaluate a company’s data privacy practices, we pour over its privacy policy, terms of service, customer FAQs, and other documentation to rate how thorough the company is in disclosing how it uses consumers' data.

“Inscrutable privacy policies are the norm, unfortunately,” says CR's Brookman. “Companies are required by law to have a privacy policy, but the law doesn't really require much in the way of detail or specificity, so a lot of companies try to get away with saying as little as possible.”

We also rate how well companies’ stated privacy policies protect consumers.

Eight companies earned a Good rating, the highest score any company received. Of those, Google Nest stood out for doing the best job disclosing what user data it shares and with whom, though it doesn’t offer good tools for obtaining and deleting your data, nor does it try to minimize data collection.

These are the top six wireless security cameras from our ratings. All offer strong data security and good data privacy, as well as impeccable video quality.

For more ratings and reviews of more models, check our wireless security camera ratings and buying guide.