I do not want my recordings to be saved on Arlo's servers

[glonstow]

I'm thinking about purchasing Arlo cameras but I have a fear of the Arlo cloud.

I have some questions.

I hope I can find someone to help me, because their support is bad and they do not respond to us.

1- Will simply connecting the cameras to the phone app start streaming the video on the app?

2- Is this streaming saved on Arlo servers or the cloud?

I don't need a free subscription if my recordings are saved to the cloud.

3- How do I prevent this before connecting my home cameras? I heard about local recording, if I buy a smart hub, will this protect my privacy away from arlo cloud? 4- Where can I watch local recordings?

Is it through the application? I don't mind subscribing, but only for notifications and not storing our videos and recordings on the cloud.

5- Is there this option with them?

6- Any advice please give me regarding privacy because I am about to buy cameras for my home?

Thank you all.

Best regards 

[StephenB]

The trial subscription cannot be canceled, and during the trial period, all recordings are stored in the cloud.  So if you purchase and don't want this to happen, then you would need to leave your cameras disarmed until the trial period ends.

Without a subscription, recordings are not saved in the cloud, and livestreaming videos would not be saved either.  Locally stored recordings are not stored in the cloud by definition.

However, when livestreaming while away from home, the video is routed through the cloud from the camera to your phone.  Arlo hasn't said whether they can decrypt these livestreams or not.  

After you livestream a camera, the image at the end of the stream is preserved and used as a thumbnail in the camera.  A similar image is shown on the video settings page.  Arlo hasn't said whether these still images are saved in the cloud or whether they are just cached on the phone.

Notifications do not require a subscription.  Though of course they are sent from the Arlo cloud, so Arlo potentially knows what notifications are sent from each camera when.   If you use geofencing, then Arlo potentially knows when the system mode changes from Armed Home to Armed Away.

Arlo has said they have strict controls over who can access your data.

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@glonstow wrote:

6- Any advice please give me regarding privacy because I am about to buy cameras for my home?

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Basic advice - If you don't believe you can trust a cloud application provider with your data, then you shouldn't use that service.  That goes for Arlo, Apple, Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Twitter, ...

You also probably should check out Arlo's privacy policy.

[glonstow]

Thank you very much, Stephen, for your help and clear answer, and thank you also for taking the time to write your response to me.