HomeComputingMobileInternetGamingElectronicsExtremeDealsExtremeTechComputingWelcome to 1984? Google acquires home security camera company DropcamWelcome to 1984? Google acquires home security camera company DropcamBy Sebastian Anthony on June 23, 2014 at 2:18 pmComment
Share This articleGoogle is moving quickly to establish a foothold in your home: After acquiring Nest Labs and its smart thermostat and smoke detector, Google is now acquiring Dropcam — a startup that makes cloud-based security cameras for your home — for $555 million in cash. Dropcam has never announced its sales figures, but its cameras have routinely been top-sellers on Amazon since their launch in 2012. The question now, of course, is whether people will be comfortable giving Google a potential pervasive peephole into their homes, rather than a small, innocuous startup taking a gander.
Dropcam sells two cameras — the Dropcam for $150 and Dropcam Pro for $200 — that both constantly upload a video feed to the cloud. For $100 per year, Dropcam stores the last seven days of footage in the cloud for you to peruse at any time; for $300 per year, the last 30 days are stored. The playback is through a rather neat web interface, so you can check the footage from almost any device. You can also watch live. As you can see on the Dropcam demo website, these cameras capture at high resolution and 30 fps; this isn’t some grainy, time-lapse thing.
Yes, you can also use a Dropcam to keep an eye on your adorable pets.Dropcam’s website tries to dress up its cameras as cute devices that are perfect for baby monitoring, or for making humorous time-lapse videos of Little Timmy falling over in the kitchen, but who are we kidding: They’re primarily security cameras. They’re for the father who wants to catch someone in the back yard, or the mother who wants to keep tabs on the babysitter. Or the father who wants to keep tabs on the babysitter. You get the idea.
In any case, Dropcam makes perfect sense as an acquisition for Nest/Google. They’re highly rated in terms of usability, and they do one thing very well. They’re the classic example of high technology being used to simplify an area that no one ever really thought to simplify — but now that it’s been done, everyone rather likes the idea of a high-res security camera or Nest thermostat that you can log into at any time from your smartphone, or a Protect smoke detector that you can turn off by waving. Dropcam also just announced a new product called “Tabs” that stick to doors and windows, and then alert you if someone opens them. If the promo video is anything to go by, they’re pretty slick.
Anyway, back to the case in point: Just imagine what Google could do with a real-time, high-res video feed of your home. Where the Nest thermostat might give Google some behavioral data — how warm/cold you like the house, your comings and goings — it pales in comparison to Dropcam. With Dropcam, Google would know exactly what you’re up to at any given time. If you’re preparing dinner, Google Now might automatically prompt you with “tips on how to make the perfect souffle.” If you’ve just brought a newborn baby back from the hospital, you might suddenly find lots of Google ads for diapers and strollers. If it hears you shouting at your game console, it might tailor your search results to show some different, less-antagonizing games.
Nest and Dropcam, incidentally, were quick to point out that Dropcam will be folded into Nest operations, rather than Google. This means, in theory, that Dropcam users will be protected by Nest’s privacy policy, and thus have to explicitly grant access before Google can take a look. For now.
Tagged In hardwaregooglewebinternetsecuritygadgetsfutureprivacysmart homesgoogle ioNestcctvgoogle io 2014dropcamShare This Article .article {margin:0px !important;}.AR_1 {margin :0 0 20px 0 !important;}.AR_2 {margin:0 0 20px 0;} CommentPost a Comment bob JohnsonEmbrace it, don’t fight it. Take all my money and info Google. I trust you.
Angel HamSo if you use these cams and you’re having sex don’t be surprised if your android smartphone starts pushing ads for KY jelly lube.
paulOr the neighbor who wants to keep tabs on father, mother and the babysitter.
JD RahmanGoogle is diversifying its portfolio. Just because they bought all these companies, doesn’t mean Google knows what to do with them.
I wouldn’t be surprised if a few of these companies end up being put on the backburner, forgotten and eventually written off as a loss. Large corporates are always acquiring and killing off startups just because some senior executive had a brain fart in a quarterly meeting.
http://www.korioi.net/ KoriosWill they also deploy a free service in exchange for projecting ads?
XenoSilvanoIf we all lived in a utopia, I would be all for this sort of technology, but we don’t(!)
We live in a world where government intelligence agencies in collusion with multinational internet corporations (Google being one of them) spy on average people. The sort of world we live in today is more dystopic than anything near utopic.
hotvideomaily cyrus sexy tape http://goo.gl/dGp01w.
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