When you purchase a Nest security camera, you want to know that your data is secured. Although, there are some wi-fi security cameras that do lack any encryption features.

Are the Nest cameras encrypted? Yes, Nest cameras are encrypted. They include AES 128-bit encryption and Transport Layer Security when connecting to the cloud.

Security cameras are susceptible to being hacked. However, with a good encryption system, it can make it almost impossible for anyone to take your data. So, how tough is the AES 128-bit encryption and Transport Layer Security?

Nest’s Protection

The information that Nest needs to provide you certain services includes:

  • Camera nameCamera descriptionHome addressZIP codeWhere will you install your Nest Camera in
  • your home?

While using Nest products, they offer you more products and services that they have collected from your data. When collecting data from your sensors they are able to monitor:

  • Smoke and carbon dioxide (CO2) levelsHouse temperatureHumidityAmbient lighting

Turning on your HOME/Away Assist on your Nest products will let Nest determine where you are with the location of your phone. This helps in detecting whether or not you are at home so your products can work better.

Nest camera will let you regulate the purpose and why you want to collect the data of your video and audio recordings. When you set up your recordings and streaming features for your security camera, Nest will process and record through your device to the specific settings you determined.

Nest will store content such as:

  • Video footageLive footageImagesCaptionsComments

After setting up your recording features, you will enable Nest to record, process and retain any audio and video recording for up to 30 days. So, if you lose any of your recordings, you are able to request them when needed.

You can request a recording of any kind using My Nest Data. Family members who are a part of your account just have to know which product they need information from. Nest will notify the other members of the family account when a request has been made by sending an email.

With the Nest app, you can delete your data and by doing this you will delete all of your personal information. Nest wants you to know that once you have deleted your information, there may still be a need to retain certain information to keep your services going.

Third Parties

Nest will only allow third parties to obtain your information if you give them permission. When you want to sign up for rewards that go towards your Nest products, you are giving Nest permission to use your data. On the Nest app, you can control what rewards or promotions you see.

The information that you have with Nest and the information you allowed the third party to have with your permission, will be looked after by the third party. The third-party will then implement their own privacy policy with the information that they got permission to have.

Nest wants to ensure that any amount of information that is put into their care, is protected by their own privacy policies and encryption algorithms. Nest uses AES 128-bit and Transport Layer Security encryption to secure your data and here is how they work.

AES 128-Bit Encryption

AES means Advanced Encryption System. The US government uses AES to secure its data and it has become a standard key cipher. This key can be decrypted by someone who has the right private key.

 There are 3 types of key size bits:

  • 128192256

The 192-bit and 256-bit key sizes are supposedly trickier to get into than the 128-bit. Symmetric ciphers are more secure than asymmetrical ciphers because they require less power. This allows them to be fast at encrypting and decrypting data.

AES encryption is as secure as your password is. Use a password manager to generate a random password and save it so that it automatically sills in your login. Install a good firewall or antivirus software for your Nest security camera to add more protection.

With all the data that is stored on your Nest camera when it gets full, you can transfer it to the cloud safely with the Transport Layer Security key exchange.

Transport Layer Security

Transport Layer Security (TLS) is another known encryption service. TLS is used when your video footage is being sent over the Internet to the cloud. Nest uses TLS to make sure that the files remain confidential when they are transmitted to the cloud.

Using TLS can help when sending your footage to a friend or family member to make sure their connection is secure and protected.

When you see SSL or Secure Sockets Layer, that is the older version of Transport Layer Security. So, these abbreviations can be used mutually.