> I store all the footage locally on a giant hard-disk array in my basement; I’m the only person who can access it

That's good.

It sounds like he didn't even put a camera in every room, so the headline is rather sensational.

Indeed, I thought this was a little weak sauce. I currently have 38 cameras installed, with another 10 to go in my Fortress of Surveillance! To boot I installed about 21 miles of fiber and CAT6 cabling, motion sensor, presence sensors, and lots of contact switches.

It is, however, all pretty unexciting in what it produces. Still fun!

I have recently gone down this path and the observation of the animal life of all kinds moving around the area has been a pleasant unintended side effect as well.

I have a spot in the yard where I work sometimes (or to just sit and have a cigarette). I can’t really see the driveway from there.

“Animal detected at Front Door” has become one of my favourite notifications. It turns out our driveway is a popular place for neighborhood cats to investigate. They, so far, have always been happy to get some scratches and tummy rubs.

I've had a similar experience, but by turning the cameras inwards, on my 8 acre property. I use surveillance to track animal patterns, keep an eye on my chickens, and get notice when someone arrives on the property. I've resisted pointing anything outside of the property, because frankly I don't care.

Another great use case is using BirdnetPi with all of my RTSP streams to identify all of the birds in the area. Ah...middle age.