Home Security Surveillance: Is It Right For You?

Security may seem like an obvious concept, but that is only because it is such a universal human problem. As anything else, security itself is actually a complex topic with a variety of related issues and problems. Security starts by asking the question: “How can I protect myself, those close to me, and my valuable possessions?” It has always been a human problem. One could say that we evolved through the concept of security.

Humans have always had to protect themselves from outside aggressors, whether they be animals or the threat posed by other groups of humans. Security likely began as general defense of communities. As technology progressed, more sophisticated techniques emerged for protecting the community.

Surveillance is associated with those techniques for defense. Surveillance initially began as simple observation, but with the advent of audio and video technology, surveillance became something else entirely. Surveillance comes from the French language and means the act of watching over. In this sense, we can think of surveillance as something that is applied in general to populations. However, as audio and video technologies continue to become smaller with each successive generation, surveillance is an option available to everyone, allowing it to work throughout society horizontally, as opposed to from above.

There has emerged a society of inverse surveillance, or sousveillance, playing off of the French language expression for the act of watching from below. One major technological innovation that has changed the practice of surveillance is the video camera. Video surveillance has become an option for many people. Businesses regularly employ the use of closed circuit television and video surveillance to protect their merchandise. It is now possible for homeowners to own their own home security surveillance system. People have cameras in their cell phones, and regularly publish images and videos on the internet. Airports use a variety of cameras of different spectrum’s, including X-rays, to observe people and increase security.

The combination of security and surveillance has resulted in a society in which we are constantly concerned with both, and surveillance technology is all around us. We are able to conduct surveillance of our own, and protecting our own possessions is a natural outcome of that situation. Home security surveillance is a technology that has emerged from the ubiquity of surveillance technology. Additionally, the ability to record video and audio has played a role, especially digital recording and storage. Home security surveillance can even be done with the use of web cams.

In conclusion, home security surveillance is largely the result of the wide availability of video cameras and recording technologies. It is certainly an option for one’s home security needs. Protecting oneself from intrusion is a classic human problem, and in an increasingly complex world, one needs increasingly innovative tools to ensure one’s security.