Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Following $30,000 in water damage to our home, I was looking for an inexpensive way to monitor the house while away. The Canary seemed like and easy way to do this but my experience with it was pretty frustrating. It began when Canary claimed my email address showed I already had an account. I don't. This is the first Canary I have purchased. Once that problem was corrected, the online software couldn’t find my location, despite having just entered my address, town, state, country and zip code. Having gotten the location wrong repeatedly, the setup routine never-the-less required I verify my location which it indicated to be two states away. To correct that problem required manually zooming out on a Google Earth like map and zooming back in on my actual location. Next was a requirement to agree to the privacy policy, which, while written in plain English, failed to state clearly that they will not share the camera images with a third party without your consent. Near the end of the setup was a demand for credit card information. The product literature indicated free live streaming as and option but that option isn't clearly offered. It does inform you though, that additional charges will apply if you choose to move your camera to a new location. At this point I was fed up and ready to box it up and send it back. It was only then that I was able to access the free option, (It requires scrolling down far past the credit card input screen.) Going ahead and activating the account I was finally able to view the live camera stream on a tablet. The image was clear if somewhat distorted and compressed. The app on the phone however was clumsy and not intuitive requiring a good deal of fiddling around to get to the mode selection screen where you can choose from three modes of operation. At home (camera on or off) Away from home (camera on or off) Sleeping at home (camera on or off). It would seem that camera on or off is all that’s really needed here and it would be nice to have that selection easily available on the app. Given the vague privacy statements, our Canary will spend most of it’s time unplugged in its shipping box only to be taken out when we leave town. One final irritant was the spam advertisements that began arriving for Home Security Systems. My recommendation would be to build your own with a Raspberry Pi or and Aduino and skip all this frustration and potential for privacy invasion. Plans are readily available on line.