Looking for some perspective on this, interested how y’all think about it and if I’m isolated in my concerns.
I’ve grown to be a bit anxious when I’m out and about in any neighborhood. The wide use of doorbell cameras that connect to the internet and save data on company servers, listen in to your conversations, and could be used for spying on you as an individual gives me a sinking feeling.
I like walking around, I walk my dogs around the neighborhood and I know my neighbors. I’ve started being so aware that it’s changing my habits. I don’t turn my face towards houses while I’m walking if I notice a doorbell camera, and I’ve put my shirt over my face when dropping off something to a neighbor who has one. I probably gave them a fright but I don’t feel like I should’ve expected to be OK with you surviving me in a way that compromises my privacy that expansively. I’m considering keeping a bandana with me to cover my face if I need to go up to a door, but of course that would make people think I’m a bad actor and just a paranoid privacy nut.
I feel a bit like Winston in the 1984 novel, always feeling watched and trying to find an isolated corner where I can’t be seen. How have y’all been feeling on this? Would love to get perspective, thanks
A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.
Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.
In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.
Some Rules
- Posting a link to a website containing tracking isn’t great, if contents of the website are behind a paywall maybe copy them into the post
- Don’t promote proprietary software
- Try to keep things on topic
- If you have a question, please try searching for previous discussions, maybe it has already been answered
- Reposts are fine, but should have at least a couple of weeks in between so that the post can reach a new audience
- Be nice :)
Related communities
much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)
- 0 users online
- 108 users / day
- 435 users / week
- 1.32K users / month
- 4.54K users / 6 months
- 1 subscriber
- 4.64K Posts
- 117K Comments
- Modlog
You are right to be wary of that behavior as it is spreading.
That being said I believe it’s good to be mindful of the “paranoid privacy nut” in the sense that… WHO are you concerned might have WHICH information about you?
I don’t know you but… if I were to find your name I could find your address or at least roughly where you live. In fact depending on what you post one could potentially know your neighborhood without even knowing your name. Now I didn’t know you had a pet, now I do. That being said even without a pet… if you live somewhere you are expected to walk around your neighborhood. It might be to go buy milk, help neighbors, drop mail, etc. There is relatively no new information there. Your neighbors might know you are around, their doorbell cameras might have footage of you doing so… and what? How is the confirmation that a perfectly average behavior is indeed coherent? What also NOT having that footage bring? Maybe you are traveling and thus not with your pet but maybe you also are sick.
So… I agree with you that all those cameras with footage are not healthy but also what do they genuinely add or remove? I would argue in principle a lot but in practice not so much. I would even argue to biggest impact is unwarranted stress and concerns, the chilling effect.
Walk freely however you want, it’s your neighborhood, ignore the cameras.
PS: as someone already pointed out, one does not need video cameras to track your movement and patterns, using wireless signal (5G/4G, WiFi, BT) on your phone is enough.
its not about the neighbors knowing this or that, but the cloud processing systems of these devices.
See my earlier answers. I’m not justifying any of that infrastructure or behavior, only trying to highlight that this information, namely that OP is walking around the neighborhood, where and when, is already available to numerous of the actors including :
So… the question IMHO is : is there are NEW data with or without the camera network? I’d argue marginally more.
sane neighbors won’t take notes if you, they won’t build a profile of you that can meaningfully be used for nefarious purposes.
5G, yes, but how accurate is 4G for that purpose? 4G transmitters are not placed as densely as 5G, and the frequency range it uses also makes it less suitable for that, as I know.
for that you can limit your phone to 4G, it may even save you power. and you always have the choice to put your phone to airplane mode. if you find it useful and you are a little determined, you could even automate it with tasker.
you can choose a mobile OS that doesn’t do that. for now…
you mean by your MAC address, when your phone is scanning? better android roms randomize that too, maybe some phones do that on stock OS too.
you can win a lot by not installing any app a shop wants you to have. they are taking advantage of the gullibility of the average person. lots of those bait apps are just a website anyway, and if you use them in a browser, they have access ro much fewer things.
but you are talking about apps with location tracking. which ones you mean? I only allow that permission for apps that I trust. on modern android, you can can give only approximate location, which is somewhat better.
I don’t get this one. your devices, or those of others? BLE 5 has MAC address randomization
the government can barge in my door. does that mean I shouldn’t keep data brokers out of my life? to me it doesn’t. I think we already tackled network operators and OS maintainers too.
yes, there is, I think
To clarify I listed here behaviors that I believe is common. I’m NOT listing behaviors that somebody privacy conscious is. That same person could around the neighborhood with a hoodie, glasses, hygiene mask just the same way.
What I was trying to highlight wasn’t extreme behavior, one way or another, but rather typical ones.
Most of what you listed is a problem. One more company having data on you is one more problem.
Yes, I didn’t say this was OK. What I’m saying rather is trying to highlight the lack of novelty.
A few years ago the people being called paranoid privacy nuts were the ones putting cameras all over their houses
I hate dorbell cameras so much
“I have nothing to hide.”
But yeah, you’re correct in finding comfort that it is not adding or removing much to the data pool for this one guy. I think minorities like myself should be more worried but it just depends on the threat model.
In fine it is about the threat model, always.
That being said I never said “I have nothing to hide” nor do I believe we as a society should accept the permanent surveillance of civilians. In fact I do believe the opposite and that the chilling effect, as highlighted here by OP, does have a toll on everyone.