The key advantage of the Privastead camera solution over existing home security camera solutions is that it provides strong privacy assurance using end-to-end encryption. More specifically, it makes the following assumptions:
Definitions: According to MLS: ``Forward secrecy means that messages sent at a certain point in time are secure in the face of later compromise of a group member. Post-compromise security means that messages are secure even if a group member was compromised at some point in the past.'' What do these mean in Privastead? In Privastead, the camera hub and the mobile app are the only members in an MLS group used for transfer of videos. They mean that if the key used to encrypt a video between the hub and the app is compromised, that key cannot be used to decrypt any of the videos sent before and after the compromised video.
Privastead camera can theoretically support any IP camera (or any other camera that has an open interface). The current prototype relies on RTSP and ONVIF support by the camera. The former is used for streaming videos from the camera and the latter is used for querying events. So far, the following cameras have been tested: