Home surveillance cams: Security or spying?

Ken Hall installed a small security camera in his home when his daughter Gracie was born.

"It's nice to have that sense of comfort, the sense of security to know that at any time during the day I can peek in and see what's going on, making sure that everything's good," he said.

All he has to do is open the app on his smartphone, and he can see and hear his family and friends. He admits it took a little time for his wife to adjust to always being on camera when she's at home.

"In the beginning it was a little strange, but think she's become used to it," he said.

Privacy Attorney Sarah Downey said the explosion of these surveillance devices on the market is a concern.

"Surveillance is everywhere. It's on the streets, it's on our computers, so the home is really the last safe zone and with many of these home surveillance devices, even that sanctity is in trouble," she said.

Downey said she believes security cameras can serve a useful purpose, but will force us to face some interesting etiquette issues.

"You can use it for children. You can use it as a baby monitor. You can keep an eye on pets. But, you can also know in extreme detail what your guests are doing, your adult guests, and that's something that they probably wouldn't expect," she said. "So that's a really huge change for society and for our culture and it's going to have a major, major impact."

Russell Ure heads up bBacksumac, the maker of some of these cameras. He sees these smaller monitoring systems as more than security. He says they're portholes of sorts into our homes.

"It's sort of a new notion of being a family public space inside your home. So this is not, this is not a space that is public to everybody, but it's public to a close member of your family," he said.

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Home surveillance cams: Security or spying?