I converted my Circle 2 camera over to HomeKit Secure video a couple of hours ago. Not much luck so far:
I cannot see any indications any recordings are being made or stored. There is no timeline, etc as shown in the Apple screenshots. I have "Stream & Allow Recording" set for both home and away. I have it set to record when there is any motion (and yes - there has been a lot of motion since I set it up).
The "Status Light" setting in the Home app does not turn the light off.
The "Night Vision Light" setting does not turn the night vision light off.
You can no longer control the camera lens view - normal, wide or ultra wide. It is stuck in Ultra-wide.
There is no mention of this in the LogiTech or Apple documentation but my Home hub is an old iPad Mini that cannot be upgraded to iPadOS 13.2. I wonder if that could be an issue.
End-to-end encryption, storage on iCloud and not accessible outside the Home app. Who’s encryption is used on iCloud? If Apple has the encryption keys for iCloud are they able to decrypt the video after being served with a warrant?
As with the FBI and Apple debacle, Apple handed over everything they had on the iCloud. If you opt to have it sit on the cloud then they have a key and a warrant will work.
That's absolutely NOT true. It is encrypted on a local iOS device before it goes to iCloud. Apple DOES NOT have the private encryption key stored on your iOS device. Thats is exactly how iMessage, FaceTime and Apple Mail can all offer end-to-end encryption.
Anything Apple "hands" over is just whatever data is there. If anything is encrypted before it is saved on iCloud then Apple cannot decrypt it. Apple uses their own private keys to encrypt your data so that anyone who gets access to their servers cannot "use" any of it. Apple is only able to decrypt what they encrypt... period.
End-to-end encryption, storage on iCloud and not accessible outside the Home app. Who’s encryption is used on iCloud? If Apple has the encryption keys for iCloud are they able to decrypt the video after being served with a warrant?
Apple is encrypting and they do not have access to it and are unable to decrypt.
If Apple is encrypting they have the encryption keys so they can technically decrypt the videos. The only way Apple doesn't have the keys is if Apple isn't handling the encryption on the iCloud servers, only using the user's encryption keys to store an encrypted file on iCloud. I'm not saying you're wrong, I'd just like to see a technical statement from Apple (security document) documenting the process. I hope you're correct since that makes this new feature worth using without worrying about anyone grabbing the videos and decrypting them. The user's keys are stored on the user's computer and include the camera systems key so the two together allow for the encrypting and decrypting.
No they don't. Apple is not encrypting the video, your iOS device is before it gets saved to iCloud. Apple is just storing your encrypted video stream on their server.
> An icon that designates what kind of motion was detected, such as animal, person or vehicle.
Is this a feature of the Logitech Circle 2 beta firmware?
As far as I understand it's a feature you get access to if you are on one of Logitech's paid plans - maybe even only the highest $10/month tier. It would be interesting to know if this feature was available on homekit secure video for customers that aren't on a paid Logitech plan.
Yes it is. When you move to Homekit Secure video, you get a message that the plans you would have for this camera are canceled.
> An icon that designates what kind of motion was detected, such as animal, person or vehicle.
Is this a feature of the Logitech Circle 2 beta firmware?
As far as I understand it's a feature you get access to if you are on one of Logitech's paid plans - maybe even only the highest $10/month tier. It would be interesting to know if this feature was available on homekit secure video for customers that aren't on a paid Logitech plan.
Yes it is. When you move to Homekit Secure video, you get a message that the plans you would have for this camera are canceled.
I somehow managed to misinterpret your reply as though the feature was not available once you convert to homekit secure video. 🙄
> An icon that designates what kind of motion was detected, such as animal, person or vehicle.
Is this a feature of the Logitech Circle 2 beta firmware?
As far as I understand it's a feature you get access to if you are on one of Logitech's paid plans - maybe even only the highest $10/month tier. It would be interesting to know if this feature was available on homekit secure video for customers that aren't on a paid Logitech plan.
Yes it is. When you move to Homekit Secure video, you get a message that the plans you would have for this camera are canceled.
Thanks for the info. I'm looking to upgrade my camera setup and the Circle 2 is a solid candidate so far. So are these features disabled once you enable homekit secure video?
I converted my Circle 2 over to the beta firmware and Homekit Secure video yesterday. Some things were a little confusing, but I was blown away how nice Logitech made the transition. This especially considering that they are losing my monthly revenue. Their app did a slick job of patching the firmware then handing off to Apple's app. There were plenty of warnings about what would happen.
Here are the finer bullet points: -I don't miss the alternate camera modes -- ultra wide is all I would want since it is pointed outdoors -the people/animals/vehicles filtering seems to work, though I only allow people through currently (and it works very reliably) -overall the playback experience is much smoother and faster (pulling video from the Logitech servers was a little painful) -Apple does not appear to support zones yet (I had porch and driveway separate with Logitech), this hurts a bit because I can no longer separate road traffic from someone pulling into my driveway -note that the timeline does not appear at all until you start having some legit triggered recordings (that threw me for a bit) -I feel much more secure that my video is end-to-end encrypted and on iCloud now -as mentioned above the Circle wireless is excluded from compatibility with Homekit Secure video -overall the Circle 2 is quite impressive; the camera itself is very solid and modular, the extensive mounting hardware is well thought-out, the (optional) exterior power adapter allowed me to avoid drilling and running wires; only caveat -- the optional window mount precludes you from using night vision; bottom line, excellent job Logitech!
What is it that makes the camera hardware home kit compatible or not? I bought a POE q-cam system a couple years ago (Haven’t even installed it yet as I need to run wiring to where I want to put the box, but most certainly it’s not HomeKit compatible. I just wish I could convert it to something that could integrate with HomeKit. I think it’s possible to convert it to an open source system from what I’ve read, but being compatible with HomeKit is of course not likely, I just wonder what, technically, it is.
Comments
- I cannot see any indications any recordings are being made or stored. There is no timeline, etc as shown in the Apple screenshots. I have "Stream & Allow Recording" set for both home and away. I have it set to record when there is any motion (and yes - there has been a lot of motion since I set it up).
- The "Status Light" setting in the Home app does not turn the light off.
- The "Night Vision Light" setting does not turn the night vision light off.
- You can no longer control the camera lens view - normal, wide or ultra wide. It is stuck in Ultra-wide.
There is no mention of this in the LogiTech or Apple documentation but my Home hub is an old iPad Mini that cannot be upgraded to iPadOS 13.2. I wonder if that could be an issue.That's absolutely NOT true. It is encrypted on a local iOS device before it goes to iCloud. Apple DOES NOT have the private encryption key stored on your iOS device. Thats is exactly how iMessage, FaceTime and Apple Mail can all offer end-to-end encryption.
Anything Apple "hands" over is just whatever data is there. If anything is encrypted before it is saved on iCloud then Apple cannot decrypt it. Apple uses their own private keys to encrypt your data so that anyone who gets access to their servers cannot "use" any of it. Apple is only able to decrypt what they encrypt... period.
No they don't. Apple is not encrypting the video, your iOS device is before it gets saved to iCloud. Apple is just storing your encrypted video stream on their server.
I found more info here: https://support.logi.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/360036746033-Logitech-Circle-2-HomeKit-Secure-Video-Support?page=2#comments
Here are the finer bullet points:
-I don't miss the alternate camera modes -- ultra wide is all I would want since it is pointed outdoors
-the people/animals/vehicles filtering seems to work, though I only allow people through currently (and it works very reliably)
-overall the playback experience is much smoother and faster (pulling video from the Logitech servers was a little painful)
-Apple does not appear to support zones yet (I had porch and driveway separate with Logitech), this hurts a bit because I can no longer separate road traffic from someone pulling into my driveway
-note that the timeline does not appear at all until you start having some legit triggered recordings (that threw me for a bit)
-I feel much more secure that my video is end-to-end encrypted and on iCloud now
-as mentioned above the Circle wireless is excluded from compatibility with Homekit Secure video
-overall the Circle 2 is quite impressive; the camera itself is very solid and modular, the extensive mounting hardware is well thought-out, the (optional) exterior power adapter allowed me to avoid drilling and running wires; only caveat -- the optional window mount precludes you from using night vision; bottom line, excellent job Logitech!