So Nancy Guthrie was kidnapped. She had a security camera but did not pay the subscription service to store the video. Nine days later, Google was somehow able to recover video from their server that the camera had taken—even though she never paid for storage.

Let that sink in.

If you have a security camera that you can view in an app or over the Internet, your video is going somewhere. It has to be. Unless you have a computer that is constantly on and recording to a local hard drive what that camera sees, that video is being transmitted somewhere else. There is no other option. That is how the technology works.

The number of people who buy cameras with no local storage is astounding. Where do you think the video is going?

Here is the part that should really concern you. These companies can flip a switch in an algorithm and go from scanning video looking for dogs to scanning video looking for people. They can change what they are looking for at any time, without telling you, without your permission. You agreed to it in the terms of service that nobody reads.

And with a few pictures of you and modern artificial intelligence, someone can create a video of you doing anything they want. They can make it look like security camera footage. Think about that.

This is not a conspiracy theory. This is just how the technology works. The camera has to send the video somewhere. The company has to store it somewhere. And whatever they store, they control.

It is 2026. People need to wake up and start thinking about what they are actually buying when they buy a connected device. You are not just buying a camera. You are buying a subscription to be surveilled—whether you pay for it or not.

If you want real privacy from a security camera, you need local storage. A hard drive in your house, on your network, that you control. Not a cloud subscription. Not an app. Your house, your drive, your footage.

Everything else is just paying someone else to watch you.