SAFE STORAGE
WWDC introduces Secure Video. Plus more accessories get the HomeKit touch
Wwdc 2019 has come and gone and while the main keynote address all but avoided the existence of HomeKit (justifiably, given the sheer amount of high-level advancements there were to talk about), apple’s automation platform did get one big mention, and it’s a significant one: wwdc saw the debut of HomeKit secure Video.
Secure Video answers a lot of major concerns about security cameras. Most importantly, it goes some way to countering accusations that cloud-based cameras could potentially leave you less secure than before. Think about object analysis; when certain camera systems use their algorithms to detect people and faces, they do this by sending images from your camera online where they’re acted on before triggering your camera to record. That’s a privacy risk – who knows what is being done with those images, or what engines they’re being used to build? HomeKit Secure Video instead hands off image processing to your local devices – your iPad,
HomePod or Apple TV – keeping it out of the cloud entirely; if something suspicious is detected, your footage is then encrypted and sent on to iCloud storage where it’s only available to you.
This is a hopeful development for HomeKit security. We have complained for some time and at some volume about the lack of widespread camera support, with a scant few devices even compatible with Apple’s platform at all, particularly given the number that’ll happily beam their footage to Amazon’s video-compatible Alexa devices or Google’s Chromecast. This new protocol means more security for you, certainly, but does it mean more manufacturers will throw their cameras into the Apple ring? It might. Existing HomeKit supporters Netatmo (maker of the Welcome and Presence cameras), Logitech (Circle 2), and Robin (ProLine Doorbell) join Eufy (eufyCam) in pledging to both create future products and roll Secure Video support into existing hardware via firmware updates.
Insecure future
Increased support is likely to depend on the level of adoption by the public, and how easy Apple’s making the task. We don’t know, for example, if Apple’s developer API for HomeKit will be altered to help camera creators make HomeKit support as frequent as Chromecast or Alexa video. And while the HomeKit Secure Video platform will certainly relieve pressure on manufacturers’ own cloud service offerings (given that the processing is done at home and Apple’s iCloud servers are responsible for backing up footage) we can’t forget that this also represents a significant lost revenue