wow, did you read the privacy statement....<p>For content that is covered by intellectual property rights, like videos (“IP Content”), you specifically give us the following permission, subject to the limitations set forth in our Privacy Policy: you grant us a non-exclusive, perpetual, irrevocable, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty- free, worldwide license to use any IP Content that you post on or in connection with Perch.<p>So anything you record using their service will be theirs!
Oh, another cloud IoT thingie.<p>Seriously, this is ridiculous. Privacy aside, once again, this data should not be streamed all around the world just like that, not to mention being saved on third party servers.<p>We need to have a serious conversation about IoT and the cloud. We need a brain-dead simple protocol for setting up direct connections between devices in the same network and turning some of them into servers. Something that will not require technical expertise to set up if properly coded on devices. And after that, we should start expecting startups to use it. <i>Dependence</i> on third-party cloud services should <i>not</i> be an acceptable business model.
What I find a bit of a shame is how dependent on the cloud it is. I live in a country where the internet isn't reliable, fast or secure so any cloud services are a barely worth the hassle or simply no-go if the government blocks them. I know that small US startups won't spend resources making their service work in "backward" markets like mine. I'm hoping to find a local set of applications that can just store video on a computer hidden in a closet with internet notifications being optional rather than essential.<p>The basic idea sounds great - nearly everyone has an old smartphone, maybe with a bad battery that can still work fine powered by USB.
So the traffic goes from the smartphone to Perch's servers, then from their servers to your client? Even setting the privacy implications aside, that seems a terribly roundabout way of doing it, as I'm pretty sure any Android-capable device is more than powerful enough to act as a standalone network camera itself.
Oh, what a fantastic idea. Just take an old smartphone that the manufacturer stopped shipping security updates for ages ago (if they ever did it at all), and get it to record what goes on inside your home. What could possibly go wrong?<p>You might want to look at <a href="http://androidvulnerabilities.org/" rel="nofollow">http://androidvulnerabilities.org/</a> to see the sorry state of security on Android phones. The older they get, of course, the worse it is.
I use IP Webcam[0] which can do motion detection and capture. I've recently been experimenting with combining it with FolderSync[1] to sync to my OwnCloud instance. For real time monitoring I can of course connect directly to IP Webcam's web interface and watch the feed, toggle the flash, etc. It'd be nice if someone made a unified solution to do this that doesn't include uploading all of your data to someone else.<p>[0] <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pas.webcam&hl=en" rel="nofollow">https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pas.webcam...</a><p>[1] <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=dk.tacit.android.foldersync.lite" rel="nofollow">https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=dk.tacit.andro...</a>
Perch is a division of Samsung Research America, Inc. (“SRA”). The Personal Information collected by Perch may be shared within SRA or with entities that are controlled by, under common control with, or control SRA. This Privacy Policy is further subject to the terms and conditions of the then-current Samsung Privacy Policy, which you can access . In the event of any express conflict between the terms and conditions of this Privacy Policy and the terms and conditions of the then-current Samsung Privacy Policy, the terms and conditions of the then-current Samsung Privacy Policy shall govern solely with respect to that conflict.<p>I just really don't trust Samsung - especially when their privacy policy overrides whatever privacy policy Perch has.
When I saw the headline, I assumed it was the latest incarnation of Vancouver startup Perch -- <a href="https://perch.co/" rel="nofollow">https://perch.co/</a>. Same name, same idea.<p>The "Perch is a division of Samsung Research America" line in their privacy policy makes me think they were acquired by Samsung and their product ported from iOS to Android.<p>Anyone have any more information? I can't find any announcements of an acquisition or acqui-hire at all.<p>Perch had been pretty quiet for the last few months, so a fire sale to Samsung wouldn't surprise me.
You can do this with a few lines of code in Firefox OS. For example, I did a SMS gateway server lately: <a href="https://github.com/SunboX/fxos-HTTP-SMS-Gateway" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/SunboX/fxos-HTTP-SMS-Gateway</a> A WiFi enabled camera wouldn't be much different.
Who has multiple spare smart phones just lying around? And with working Internet access? Surely it's cheaper (and more private and secure) to just use cheap IP cameras?