Earlier quoted context omitted.
So you can send live video to Google of your home, family and regular daily activities for them to keep. ;-) You can build a better camera with a Raspberry Pi 2 for less that does not "phone home" to it's manufacturer.
What would be the best "out-of-the-box" alternative to this one, though?
The Dericam H5xxW series are 720p cameras with built-in ftp and web servers. They cost about $75. You can also hack them. There is no cloud service. And you can turn off the PnP access.
However, if all you want is an excellent "out-of-box" experience, you really won't "own" any IoT device you can currently purchase. They are all remotely managed.