Are budget pet cameras safe and private?

It's a mixed picture. On r/homeautomation, a high-engagement thread we read on TP-Link Tapo trustworthiness concluded the cameras record reliably and support local-only storage, which sidesteps cloud-privacy concerns. eufy has had public security incidents in past years that surface in r/EufyCam discussions, though current models support local storage and HomeKit, which several commenters cite as mitigations.