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.
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.
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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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.
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.
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.
Tbh I think the people at the top still haven’t caught up with the rapid changing sentiments among the population. My zero-tech-savy retired mother in-law was talking to me about Palantir the other day.
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
Presumably because most end users are in deep with the “if you do nothing wrong, you have nothing to worry about” crowd … and besides it can find a lost dog /s.
They brought these sorts of intrusive cameras in the first place so privacy was not top of mind, or even in 2nd or 3rd place.
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
They product does exactly what their customers want. Just the latter had not realised the implications for their own privacy, before the commercial, apparently.
Because the most evil people on the planet are universally convinced that they’re heroes.
These people are so fucking out of touch that it’s ridiculous
just get a Chinese one like tapo so that the Chinese government can spy on you instead
Which is actually better because the chinese have no jurisdiction in the USA.
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.
It is baffling that people hadn’t clued in about this sooner
Either they are ignorant or choosing convenience over security.
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…
“Amazon says the system is secured against hackers” …You dumb evil pieces of shit, your employees and malicious government and law enforcement entities are a far greater risk than hackers. “We’re spying on everything you do and giving Trump’s constitution-ignoring lackeys access, but at least hackers aren’t, probably”
Because they all connect to the Kremlin via a single washing machine CPU.
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 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’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.
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.
I have a QNAP. Free dvr software. I buy cheap rtsp-capable cameras and roll my own.
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
Do you still have chinese citizenship? A few immigrant friends have gotten the paperwork ready, either to return to their home country or immigrate elsewhere, just incase ICE picks them up, they can agree to self-deport instead of ending up in a salvadorian concentration camp indefinitely.
IDK how the chinese US citizenship thing works, maybe China’d accept getting literally deported as proof you’re not a US citizen.
According to google (I am not a lawyer) I don’t have it anymore the moment I got US citizenship since they don’t do dual citizenship and honestly I don’t really want to live in mainland China.
If I had to leave the US, I rather go to Canada, Australia, or perhaps EU for asylum…
Or perhaps Taiwan, or maybe Singapore.
I know from your post history, you seem to like PRC, but please understand that I have a personal grudge against the CCP, I was the second child (precisely a second son so there was no exemption whatsoever) in my family born during the One Child Policy, I really hate the fact that they tried to terminate me when I was still a fetus, then afterwards deny my existence by refusing to issue my legal documents until they made my parents pay a huge fine… which feels like extortion IMO.
I feel like my existence in China is “illegal”, I feel rejected. I don’t wanna be there.
I have an existential crisis over it… I’m not even supposed to be alive in this world, I’m an anomoly.
According to google (I am not a lawyer) I don’t have it anymore the moment I got US citizenship
Yes, but if the US says you never actually had citizenship, maybe China will accept that.
If I had to leave the US, I rather go to Canada, Australia, or perhaps EU for asylum
I’ve heard they’ve made it harder to get asylum, and there’s often poor outcomes for asylum seekers, after Arab Spring. If you have a US passport and money to start a business or any extended family, you can stay for quite awhile. This applies to most of Asia too where US passport gets you 90 days on arrival, or 90 day evisa for vietnam. US passports are pretty powerful.
Or perhaps Taiwan, or maybe Singapore.
Never been to either, can’t tell you about it.
I have an existential crisis over it… I’m not even supposed to be alive in this world, I’m an anomoly.
Eh, it’s a different place now. My family who worked there in the 90s and 2000s had completely alien experiences to when I went there in last year. All I’m saying is it’d be wise to be aware of what options you have.
Eh, it’s a different place now. My family who worked there in the 90s and 2000s had completely alien experiences to when I went there in last year. All I’m saying is it’d be wise to be aware of what options you have.
Mental health acceptance is stilk a huge issue. My mom told me about a story where allegedly someone in either her village or a neighboring village (can’t even understand what exactly she said because I’m not as fluent in Cantonese as English) had a family that has a son that “doesn’t act normal” and instead of trying to help, they perceived him as a threat and just locked him inside the house, barely treated him like a human being and only fed him out of pity… like an animal on a barn…
And also my mom just told me a story on WeChat about in Guangdong, an autistic person that got accepted into a University but then they found out about his autism so they expelled him for that after he already got accepted. So yeah… that would’ve caused outrage in the west. There is not really an ADA equivalent in China.
My mother kinda lowkey hates me for having depression… can’t imagine what’s its like in China, everyone would just call me “lazy” or “useless eater” or some shit… China is very conservative, its MAGAland but with Chinese Characteristics.
Also, if I posted any of my posts that I posted here about my mother’s behaviors on the Chinese internet… oh jeez they’re gonna just attack me for being “unfilial”, at least westerners sort of sympathize. In China, parents are always right, the kids are always wrong.
My ideal country would be one with a lot of Asians (or more specifically, ethnic Han Chinese) but that are westernized. Cuz then I have safety of not having to deal with racism, but also not having to deal with conservative culture bullshit.
Like just build one massive island then gather all the Westernized ethnic Han Chinese there, build our own country, without authoritarian bullshit, then I’d be safe.
Mental health acceptance is stilk a huge issue
Yes, definitely. Mental health (and regular healthcare in some specific ways) definitely has room for improvement. Only panhandler I remember was a guy asking people for money, with what looked like his mother, saying he had depression.
Also, if I posted any of my posts that I posted here about my mother’s behaviors on the Chinese internet
Depends on who the audience is. I’ve seen quite a few Chinese, particularly LGBT+ posting about their parents on xhs, but presumably there’s not a lot of boomers in their algo.
My ideal country would be one with a lot of Asians (or more specifically, ethnic Han Chinese) but that are westernized
If you have Chinese citizenship, but your hukou is mainland China, can you get a job in Hong Kong? I didn’t like the few hours that I spent there, it’s expensive and charmless, but it’s pretty westernized.
Also maybe talk to people who live there, your mother sounds like she might have a specific agenda in which experiences she shares. That’s not to say abusive families aren’t a major issue. One chinese was confused that americans don’t beat their children, “even if the child is intentionally misbehaving”. She seemed to accept “children learn from their parents, so hit someone who doesn’t do what you want isn’t something I want to teach” tho. I didn’t investigate if that meant she sometimes beats the kid for behavior she believes is unintentional too.
His icon suggests Taiwanese.
ten years too late
Why anyone ever thinks empowering psychopathic companies is ever a good idea is beyond me. They ALWAYS fuck us over. Every damn time.
I went with industry standard localized cameras that I could rider python on two of my servers at home for. Id love to try to hack up a ring , see if I could extract out what makes it “evil” and leave the rest, to even a relay to another server or something.
Things I think about.
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.
