A Super Bowl ad for Ring security cameras boasting how the company can scan neighborhoods for missing dogs has prompted some customers to remove or even destroy their cameras.
Online, videos of people removing or destroying their Ring cameras have gone viral. One video posted by Seattle-based artist Maggie Butler shows her pulling off her porch-facing camera and flipping it the middle finger.
Butler explained that she originally bought the camera to protect against package thefts, but decided the pet-tracking system raised too many concerns about government access to data.
“They aren’t just tracking lost dogs, they’re tracking you and your neighbors,” Butler said in the video that has more than 3.2 million views.
If your stupid gadget needs a separate proprietary app that demands internet access, anticipate that all data is shared for all kinds of shady business.
Not always the case. Some cameras require a proprietary app for set up but can then be set to stream to a local server. Internet access can then be completely blocked with router settings.
Still, would you really want that? A half-baked device in your network, a device you suspect would constantly betray you, if given the chance?
I personally can’t imagine getting used to that. I’d despise the device (and myself probably).
I have absolutely no problem using these kinds of devices.
I have an old phone and a generic Play account that I used for setup so the companies have nothing of consequence but my public IP address. Setup takes less than 15 minutes and after that all Internet access is completely blocked just like it would be if I unplugged my cable modem. There is no way for the cameras to override my router settings.
My smart TV is much more of a concern.
It is baffling that people hadn’t clued in about this sooner
Either they are ignorant or choosing convenience over security.
They’ve backed off this and ended the partnership, claim Flock never got any footage, which I think is a total lie.
They’ll re-partner when the heat is off, or just do it silently, Amazon shouldn’t be trusted. Explain why to your friends and neighbors.
This isn’t referring to the flock thing, they put out a commercial in the Superbowl about creating a cam-network to help find lost pets.
Where did you hear they ended the partnership? (Even if you supply a source, I probably won’t believe it.)
Edit: nm. found it. https://www.engadget.com/home/ring-calls-off-partnership-with-police-surveillance-provider-flock-safety-031717605.html
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My personal choice for security stuff is ubiquiti, but I’m sure someone here can find a super cheap doorbell camera that saves to an SD card and accomplishes the same thing.
I’m really glad people didn’t just fall over for this ad, and connected the dots on what Amazon is doing
Reolink doorbell cameras don’t need to be connected to the cloud. They can record to an SD card or upload to an FTP server. You can connect to them with RTSP and run your own NVR if you want too.
I’m sure many did, sadly.
I honestly didn’t know what they were thinking with that commercial. Why would you proudly advertise that you’ve built a massive surveillance network, during one of the most-watched yearly televised events too for that matter? Did they seriously believe that there wouldn’t be a major backlash? I mean I appreciate the blunt honesty in that commercial so I’ll give them credit for that.
My guess is that since Ring has a history of well-known collaborations with police and ICE, they wanted to re-frame their evil surveillance network as a way to save a puppy. Instead, lots of uninformed normies suddenly realized what those cameras are capable of, and had a huge negative reaction given the state of things.
Because in 3 weeks most people will forget about it. It’s brazen. They’ll still be the biggest doorbell company in America
These people are so fucking out of touch that it’s ridiculous
Because the most evil people on the planet are universally convinced that they’re heroes.
I chose Reolink. AFAICT it’s not leaking anything outside my network and it’s fairly inexpensive. Not as cheap as the subsidized Ring brand but hey, at least I own them.
I’ve got a few Reolinks. I have them set to record to a local SD card and have blocked outside internet so that they’re not phoning home.
I’ve been worried about security, and therefore haven’t even researched the options. I’d like to have one, but I don’t want people able to see what’s happening without me allowing it for specific footage. Only guaranteed way was to just not have any. I could do local only, but there is less utility with that. So, it wasn’t worth the effort and cost.
I have my reolink cameras setup on an internal network without direct internet access, but have a server running Frigate and a VPN that I can remote into from my phone. Gives me full control of where the recordings are backed up and remote access controls. This setup works for their doorbells too which is neat.
PoE, no wifi for me. The DVR is in the rack, I keep meaning to back it up to a cloud account of some sort but haven’t gotten around to it so if you break into my house and steal the NVR I won’t have a record of you being there.
I have my security alerts sent to Telegram from Frigate just so it’s in another location for that reason.
I have a reolink that I use as a baby monitor. It’s on our wifi but I set up my router to prevent it from accessing the internet. So you can only access it if you’re phone is on the wifi. And it records onto an SD card.
I have a QNAP. Free dvr software. I buy cheap rtsp-capable cameras and roll my own.
Put your reolink in privacy mode so it wont contact the reolink servers. Then set up Frigate to record a week of data. You dont need much space for 7 days of a couple of cameras.
I have their NVR and yeah, it’s all in privacy mode.
Imagine spending millions of dollars on an ad that costs your company millions more in lost sales
And reduced usage by existing customers, reduced network effect, etc…
my next door neighbor has a camera that seems to look like a ring… I mean I’m not gonna approach their door for no reason to check if it is a ring, but like… if it is a ring… then oh well, NSA is right by my door.
And I’m in a deep blue city btw… neighbor is a renter and is Black, so… yeah… minority working class inadvertantly have a spy camera on their door
Front door is like right next to each other… like the camera can see me walking in the the path into my own house, it makes a sound when it detects movement and I heard the sound thing trigger even when walking only on my side of the yard
…And my family are immigrants…
so yay, our movements are probably in an ICE database
ten years too late
It would be good if they had a way to limit range so it couldn’t focus on anything that isn’t within 10 ft of the door.
There’s no focus on my cameras, but they’re set not to detect people unless them come into zones near the house.
the few that do this are the smart ones. I fear the ignorant/dumb wont follow when this story eventually dies
Why anyone ever thinks empowering psychopathic companies is ever a good idea is beyond me. They ALWAYS fuck us over. Every damn time.
The most appalling thing is the advertisers and whoever approved this live in a bubble where people are ok with massive surveillance, and don’t imagine people will freak out when they see how Amazon can watch them. At least Meta knows their users hate them but are hostages of their network, that’s why Meta buys or crushes competitors before they become too big. I’ve not seen that since a Ford’s VP bragging about how much Ford will know absoltuely everything you do with “your” car (is it really?) and backpedaled live as he realized journalists were horrified. That was a long time ago. Today it’s common.
Because they all connect to the Kremlin via a single washing machine CPU.
Cancel prime too
