I'm assuming that to get email alerts of motion detection you need to set this up in the camera. Correct?

If you want to use motion detection, you should be certain you specify that when you order a subscription on CameraFTP. As long as you have done this, you simply have to enable motion from your camera configuration pages. Feel free to email support@cameraftp.com with other questions

Best,
CameraFTP Support Team 

  so where might one specify motion sensor on their subscription I'm not seeing it I'm not getting it

If you ordered a "VSS local recording plan", it is quite different from a cloud recording plan. 

With a local recording plan, you must use CameraFTP VSS software on a PC. The footage will be recorded to your local PC. A small portion can be recorded to the cloud.

In general, because a local recording plan requires little resource from the cloud server, it has no limit on recording parameters. It is still limited by your camera quality, your PC/local network speed, and your amount of local storage space. If you want to set motion-recording, you can do so from CameraFTP VSS software.

In comparison, a cloud recording plan has limit on recording parameters. You must configure your camera to record based on the plan's parameters. If your camera uploads at higher parameters than the plan's parameters, it must be corrected ASAP (within a few days). Otherwise, the server may block your camera or your account.