Any other more privacy friendly solution out there? I have a home server which I access using a VPN.
I use BlueIris for the NVR software (it is cheap) and I buy various cheap IP cameras that support OnVIF (almost all try to phone home, some directly to china IPs). But what I do is I put all the cameras on an isolated LAN that does not have access to the internet. My BlueIris server has two NIC's one for the video lan and the other for my data network. BlueIris has a static IP and is locked down as well to what it can access externally.
Two ways you can make BlueIris work outside your home, use a VPN on your mobile device (absolute safest), or use their free DDNS to point to your box. Their system seems fairly decent, and I've done both methods. I also log all the requests on both LANs and check them every so often to see what is happening.
It seriously doesn't cost much to set this up, especially for just a couple of cameras.
I have them blocked from the Internet with logging turned on. I’ve never noticed them attempt to reach out.
Same with a bunch of Annke cameras, which are rebadged Hikvision cameras. Annke are cheap but pretty good quality cameras that do RTSP and all the other usual stuff. They never require their own app.