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otr2406's profile

Saturday, February 4th, 2023 10:03 PM

Indoor Camera - Privacy Shutter Opens For First Minute in "Off" Mode

I have an indoor camera that I want to behave as follows: privacy shutter closed in "Off" and "Home" modes, and privacy shutter ONLY open and monitoring in "Away" mode. My Camera Behavior settings are set correctly as "Off:" On, "Home": On, "Away": Off. The camera works as intended, EXCEPT when I set the system to "Off" mode, the privacy shutter opens (against my wishes!) and monitors for almost exactly 60 seconds, and then closes on its own without any external commands. I went around in circles on 3-4 calls with tech support, where they seemed stumped and even shipped me a replacement camera which does exactly the same thing. I'm suspecting that the shutter opening for 60 seconds after the status change to "Off" might actually be by design for some reason and tech support is not aware of it? If so I plan on returning the camera as I don't trust a camera inside my house whose privacy shutter opens and closes without me commanding it to specifically do so...

Official Response

Community Admin

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5.6K Messages

1 year ago

Hi @sil3nced ,

I think the missing piece that might help your understanding is that the Privacy Shutter setting is specifically about the recording behavior after motion. So for example, if you have the shutter closed in Off Mode, then the camera will not trigger if someone walks in front.

However, as you have noted, the camera will also trigger recordings when the main alarm system is disarmed. This is a separate behavior, which at this time cannot be modified. It is indeed intentional, so you can have another way of keeping record of who has accessed your home. For example, you'll know if it was a family member going in, versus an intruder who somehow figured out your PIN.

We do want to make it very clear that your videos are fully encrypted, both in transit and at rest. That means no one can access your recordings without your permission. We strongly believe that privacy goes hand-in-hand with security!

3 Messages

@davey_d​ Thanks, that all makes sense! My two small bits of customer feedback would be 1. consider a future update to allow users more control over privacy shutter behavior, even if buried in an advanced menu somewhere (I for one would choose stricter controls around when it opens); 2. ensure the phone tech support team knows this is how it is supposed to work, as on all 4 calls they went into troubleshooting/debugging mode when I described what the shutter was doing. Thanks again! 

Accepted Solution

Captain

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6K Messages

1 year ago

@otr2406 I have 3 Simplicams and the privacy guard is set to closed in off mode, open in home and away modes. They work as you expect, including that when the system is armed or disarmed, all of the cameras will have the guard open and they record (for 30 seconds I believe). They are desiged this way, good or bad, and work that way consistently.  If you don't want them to work this way, you may have to return them.

Hope I understood your post correctly.

1 Message

1 year ago

I have this same issue. And I know i can delete it but now im anxious about the video not actually being pernamently deleted 

Community Admin

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5.6K Messages

@sil3nced​ it might help to know that all of your videos are encrypted both in transit and at rest. That means no one, not even our own staff, can access your video without your permission!

3 Messages

1 year ago

Thanks @captain11! None of the 4 SS tech-support people I talked to seemed to be aware that this is designed behavior, so your clarification is a huge help. I do find the idea of being recorded inside my own house (even for 60 seconds!) a little unsettling so might opt to get rid of the indoor cam, but good to know anyway that it's an intentional feature not a bug.

Captain

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6K Messages

@otr2406​ Actually its more like 30 seconds and is only when the system is armed, unarmed or an alarm state. Actually from a security standpoint, not a bad practice. My 3 cameras cover the entire first floor of the house, no cameras on the 2nd floor where we sleep.  On some days I actually wave to the camera in the living room and say good morning. Yeah, stupid but I laugh about it.

1 Message

1 year ago

I also have this issue. The shutter opens and camera records, even when switching between two closed shutter modes. For example, in "home" and "away" modes, the camera shutter is closed. But when switching between them, it opens for the 30-60 seconds mentioned in other comments. I see no reason for it to do this.

I definitely recommend Simplisafe listen to this feedback and remove this "feature"

It makes me feel like I have no control over the privacy in my home. 

Community Admin

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3.1K Messages

@SWisdom​ This suggestion has been passed along to our dev team. If it gets picked up, an update will be provided in this thread. Please know that we at SimpliSafe believe that privacy and security go hand-in-hand. All of your videos are encrypted, so absolutely no one, not even a staff member, can access your recordings without your permission.

2 Messages

@emily_s​ 

You should recommend they add a "Privacy Shutter Override" or something similar that allows one to manually override the saved setting & open or close the privacy shutter in any mode.

I'm not sure it would get much use, but it would be nice to be able to do that.  Like if you have the system set to off, you could then temporarily override the saved setting to close the privacy shutter for X amount of time if you wanted to not be on camera for something.

2 Messages

11 months ago

I'm not sure how this forum works, so bear with me.  Also not sure if anyone will see this, but it was the first result I got on Google, so I'll try...😅

I have had my system for about two years now I believe.  I do similar to everyone else - privacy shutter set to CLOSED in HOME mode & open in the other two modes.  When I set it to home, both cameras used to close immediately.  But a few weeks, maybe 2-3ish months ago, the camera that oversees my living room/kitchen/dining area does not close immediately.  It takes, IDK, a minute or two before it'll eventually close.

Help?!??  Like I said, it did NOT used to stay open when setting to HOME.  It used to immediately close.  The second camera that is in my office/studio has started exhibiting the same behavior I think.  It's in the other room, obviously, so I don't see or hear it closing like I do with the living room camera & I'm setting it to home in the living room area, which is also the entryway area.

I've tried going into the settings & setting it to stay open in HOME, saving that setting, & then resetting it back to closed but that has had no effect.

Community Admin

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5.6K Messages

Hi @ESitte ,

I'm not sure I have an exact explanation for your previous experience. But it sounds like you're now getting the expected behavior.

That is, your cameras should be recording whenever you disarm (going from Away to Off), So if you arm the system into Home immediately after, the recording would still be happening from that previous event.

As I previously mentioned, the shutter settings only affect behavior for motion sensing, and not responses to alarm system events. So the cameras will record for disarms, actual alarms, etc. I should also add that the shutter settings don't interrupt ongoing recordings - so setting the system to Home Mode won't stop recordings from other events.

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