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IP Crawl: Living atlas of open webcams discovered on the public internet

IP Crawl: Living atlas of open webcams discovered on the public internet

arm32

Comments (134)

  • naturalmovement
    Everyone: For a moment forget everything you know about computers and wonder if perhaps 99% of normies are just following the directions on the package of their $19 Chinese IP camera. They have no idea what a firewall is, or what the "public internet" even means.There's also a difference between your neighbor not closing her blinds and you using a telescope to look inside her apartment, which is what sites like this are.
  • halperter
    This website---naturally, I think---weirds me out. Many of these cameras are in private spaces, with some places you most certainly don't want people to have live feeds of. It's quite disturbing how you can see personal snapshots of people's lives without them knowing. There's a perverse feeling of dread about being able to see into someone's life and being able to paradoxically watch someone eat dinner alone, seemingly so detatched from human connection even with someone watching like some kind of otherworldly spectator.
  • bensons1
    Nothing changed compared to 2012 https://web.archive.org/web/20151013010243/http://internetce...> As a rule of thumb, if you believe that "nobody would connect that to the Internet, really nobody", there are at least 1000 people who did.
  • ragebol
    Someone keeping an eye on their (illegal?) cannabis pants in the UK? https://ipcrawl.com/?cam=3892f36f150ff9db
  • QuantumNomad_
    Hehe, this one has a feeding tray with a novelty sign on it:> Baiting deer is illegal!> This corn pile is intended for squirrels, chipmunks, and other such critters.> Any deer found eating this corn will be shot!https://ipcrawl.com/fun/c/373ef0178c5281a5
  • djeastm
    I think the author of the website should next work on some kind of alerting system for the owners of these webcams to let them know they're exposed and how to make them private.Then everyone could get what they want: voyeurs can watch exhibitionists like God intended.
  • elliotbnvl
    Definitely an invasion of privacy. I can’t visit this website in good faith. It should be taken down.The point is valuable, and the mission is important, but the ends do not justify the means. If this must be shared, at least use static pictures and don’t stream the content for viewers.
  • adrianwaj
    Why don't any of them have sound? Any way to sort on resolution and frame rate? Multiple cameras at any one location?Plot-twist: large bunch of people here are willing to have their life made public.Would be interesting if people could claim their camera and use the site to keep a long-term archive of footage. AI could detect various activities too and notify owners of thieves, intruders or infidelity. Could also charge outsiders to view. Best if streams were made private first to stop mirror sites. What happens if certain householders or visitors aren't told about the camera while being recorded?
  • andai
    Site won't load for me, but I remember in the late 2000s when I was a kid, I found online some string you could type into Google and it would give you unsecured webcams in the results. (Not sure why Google was indexing random people's home IPs, how does the crawler even end up there?)I recall most of them were in Asia.. street cameras, supermarkets.. then I suddenly found myself looking into someone's bedroom.Fortunately it was empty, but I promptly shat myself and turned off my computer.
  • bewal416
    All these “is this ethical” comments remind of similar discussions happening in the IMG_0416 articles, about YouTube video that were most likely not meant to be scene publicly: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42102506
  • spzb
    This seems to just be a map interface to Shodan Images. I've found the exact same camera with the exact same snapshot on both sites.https://images.shodan.io/?query=port%3A554+country%3A%22GB%2...https://ipcrawl.com/imce?cam=069b2971c357edbd
  • PhilipRoman
    Hah, someone from UK seems to have a camera pointing to his cannabis plants... Hopefully the guy has a "loicense" for that, otherwise it would be a hilarious way to get busted
  • bouncycastle
    Perhaps someone could have some fun with this...Feeding faked looped security camera footage is a classic plot device in many films, and could make some good comedy!These days you could do with AI. Godzilla over Tokyo anyone?
  • madeonsunday
    @dang Shouldn't there be a warning in the title? Atlas makes it sound like pins on a map. I, for one, would be highly uncomfortable to open this and see something private that someone has unwittingly shared with the internet.I also question whether this site really fits with HN's values. By being so highly ranked here, a great number of eyeballs are being directed at cameras that are clearly not supposed to be publicly accessible. At a minimum that doesn't seem especially kind.
  • wolvoleo
    I can see my house from here!
  • retardedsecguy
    People hating on this project should ask themselves, should Shodan be taken down too? Because you can easily find these camera feeds on there too.
  • EvanAnderson
    So many cameras pointed at billboards. I assume it's a quality assurance thing.
  • janoelze
    regardless of which side the author personally finds themselves on the privacy debate here; there's cameras directed baby's changing tables. the snapshots are hosted from the ipcrawl itself. it doesn't take a genius to put one and one together. this is potentially generating imagery you absolutely don't want to host from/on your domain.
  • applicative
    I thought it all had to be fake but, thinking it would be innocent, did watch what seems to have been the priests’s concluding procession for 430 Saturday vigil at St Martin of Tours in Louisville which I had to labor a bit to identify At first I thought ‘who goes to church Saturday afternoon’ - and not a bad crowd for Louisville on a Saturday afternoon. God knows how such a thing turns up.
  • Havoc
    Totally left field request I know but does anyone know of a webcam that can do RTSP/sane protocol and long focus (think looking outside at landscape)?
  • davidvaughan
    Droitwich, UK, is a bit revealing.
  • elorant
    I’m more interested in how they do large scans without their ISP or hosting provider going bananas about it.
  • johnmkane
    I feel like a small group of Geo Guesser pros could organize a nice competition for them selves and at the same time make a big service to lots of people.
  • dbmikus
    Really freaky seeing how many of these are bedrooms.
  • anon
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  • anon
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  • barbazoo
    Imagine you're at work and there's a camera behind you filming everything you do and it's just out in the open.https://ipcrawl.com/?page=2&cam=6a12c0423e8e0193
  • tamimio
    Meanwhile I have thingino firmware on the camera with 64+ long pass running on local nvr on a separate lan reachable through vpn only, and I still physically cover the lens when I sit in the living room, crazy stuff.
  • greatgib
    I might be wrong, but I have a very very big suspicion that this website is fake and probably a scam of some way.If you look at it, all "feeds" that are without any moving part or human are "live", and when there is anything that could have movements, then it is a "snapshot" that doesn't move.And then there is this very funny one that I'm quite sure is AI generated: https://ipcrawl.com/?page=2&cam=63f7feaf5042d223 The picture: blob:https://ipcrawl.com/939da98f-dfbf-4019-8518-8bfbdfbcb8df
  • dakolli
  • Ako03
    Is it legal to have such a website?
  • jrochkind1
    What, no plotting on a map?
  • _HMCB_
    One word: crazy
  • realty_geek
    Seems a bit shifty to be honest...What is the goal?And they've created a reddit page specifically for this!
  • fuzzfactor
    There's a number of streams from resorts and swimming pools, may be a good idea in case kids get into trouble around the water.Adults too, if you had a pool like this wouldn't everybody want to share their "sex pool party cam"?https://ipcrawl.com/?page=7&cam=398d4f57a3155d42
  • andrewstuart
    Imagine if someone put plausible but strange/shocking fake videos on an open port for the voyeurs to think real and freak out about.
  • nemothekid
    Off topic: Is there anyone doing any research on how to use Claude/Agents to design websites that don't look so, "Claude"?