But this democratization has a blind spot. Unlike public CCTV, which is often governed by local laws and oversight committees, home cameras operate in a legal gray zone, governed primarily by the whims of the homeowner and the privacy policies of tech giants.

Install the cameras. Protect your home. But leave the digital curtains open—and remember that the best burglar deterrent is often not a lens, but a good relationship with the people next door.

The key to responsible use is Before you mount that floodlight camera to the eaves, ask yourself three questions:

When your footage is stored on a company’s server, you aren’t the only one who has "access." There is a recurring debate regarding how much access law enforcement should have to private camera networks (such as Amazon’s Ring or Google’s Nest) without a warrant.