Agencies that use Flock can request that Ring doorbell users share footage to help with "evidence collection and investigative work."
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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.
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A video doorbell sales dude tried giving me one for free. I said “I don’t want your company to spy on my neighbors so they can hand it off to the cops without my say-so” and he looked at me like I’m stupid.
Should have said ok and then destroyed it once it’s legally your posession
Stop buying these fucking things. All they do is give you a memento of whatever happens at your door. They don’t stop shit from happening, they just record it.
I mean I don’t like these things but I’m sure people buy them to see who is at the door before answering or to answer when not home. Don’t believe people are buying them as security cameras.
yes and no… Will a camera physically prevent someone from breaking into your house? no. However, having a camera conspicuously installed does act as a deterrent.
One very useful function that doorbell cameras have specifically, is that I can talk to the person at the door remotely. I’ve had a couple occasions where I was unable to get to the door at the moment a delivery person showed up, so I was able to use that feature to tell them to leave the package and I’d be out momentarily to get it.
It’s also useful to get a notification when my kids get home from school and I’m in the office.
That being said, you are correct in that people should not be buying these cloud-only devices, especially when there are plenty of self-hosted options that have become quite affordable lately.
It’s important to install them as accurately as possible, too. Use multiples, and if using fake ones, be sure to make the fake ones hard to reach. The more doubt you create, the less likely you’ll be worth the trouble. It’s the same as walking in parking lots or streets with your head on a swivel. If you aren’t likely to be caught off guard, you’re probably not worth attacking.
Not everyone can afford cctv
Generic onvif/rtsp cams are a dime a dozen and work with any NVR program that supports open standards. We’re talking $30ish for stuff that’s weatherproof, wifi, some with backup batteries, pan tilt zoom, 2 way audio. Cheap indoor models are like $20. It all runs locally if you install one of the several free NVR programs on a computer on your LAN.
You just lost 95% of people with those words. Ring and other cameras are popular because they are simple for the general population to setup and use, not because they are the cheapest. This place is such a bubble of people who think the entire world thinks just like them.
Well then maybe you should whine to DeathsEmbrace that they are wrong for only complaining about the price then. I never claimed it was easier and you shouldn’t assume that was my claim or had anything to do with what I was saying.
Jesus, get offended a little? I’m just stating that setting up all the things you said is not feasible for the general population and that is why Ring is so popular. Vast majority of people will trade privacy and cost for convenience all day long. I’m not making up a single thing. I don’t know one person in real life that would know any of the shit you said, let alone set it all up by themselves to save a few bucks. That’s why they pay more for Ring. It’s easy and just works.
Your attitude notwithstanding, you’re literally the one who came in hot acting like you’re enlightening us with the revelation that the cheaper open source alternatives are harder to set up. No shit. If you haven’t invented the idea that I’m saying it’s just as easy, then how do you figure that we live in a bubble when I literally agree with you? Spare us the condescension, please.
You’re literally doing the “triggered?” meme where you behave like a jerk and then act surprised when people don’t put up with it.
I’m literally not. This community always acts surprised when the world uses these devices like they are idiots for using them. “Just setup this open source thing instead” is always thrown around as if it’s something you just plug in and use. My comment is explaining why the world doesn’t use them. And your comment is a perfect example because you use so many words and acronyms most people wouldn’t understand nor care to understand. Stop acting like it’s so easy to do and everyone around us are idiots for using devices like Ring.
You are the perfect example of someone who is knowledgeable and gets offended when everyone else doesn’t know. I see it so so much in the community. Being a newbie is rough because the knowledgeable are often assholes and act like we are stupid for asking questions. I also see a lot of bad documentation that expects you to be a veteran programmer to understand. Even if these people wanted to dig in, you guys don’t often make it easy for them.
Yes you can, if you can afford a Ring+subscription you can afford to get NVR+4 cameras and install them. Reolink even has doorbell cams that you can add to the NVR.
cctv can be free if you’re use free open source software like motion or linux.
Another thing users are “agreeing” by default and have to opt-out?
Opt-out!? Sounds like some woke shit capitalist jesus wouldn’t agree on
Nevermind users, at least the can choose to get rid of those, what about random people passing by?
Every town around me have installed these fucking things, covering every major route. In order to get out of my local area without being tracked I have to drive on some serious hillbilly roads. It’s exhausting.
Do you have any hobbies that require that kind of caution?
Is not-liking-being-monitored-by-some-asshole-billionaire-ceo-who-is-selling-all-my-movements-and-habits-to-people-i-know-nothing-about-and-i-have-no-reason-to-trust-their-intentions a hobby?
I completely agree. These tools are bullshit dystopia incarnate.
Its not about what your doing its the fact, it indiscriminately tracks people.
What is fine and legal today could be illegal tomorrow.
Also there are so many examples of abuse and mistakes by flock that they are unredeemable
Shocked Pikachu who could have predicted
Wouldn’t be surprised if the outage was caused by Palantir getting a shit load of new data suddenly.
When these ring cameras came out I got into an argument with a friend, who got one immediately, that they were just advanced tools for state surveillance.
I think I said something like, sure you can’t put a CCTV camera on every civilian door in the U.S. (also pointed at their neighbors) but you can sure as hell sell them their own.
Id like to thing Ring users and pontential buyers would drop after the recent outage. Probably wont though.
AWS hosts about 1/3 of all Internet traffic. Most alternatives likely store data on AWS
Unless you do your own system. A NVR and a doorbell camera. Software like Blue Iris can even send notifications by email, telegram, or SMS.
i believe you would have to opt in to share that info with police. im not 100% of course because im only speaking with the limited knowledge i have from videos on Flock, but they do say that each person/town/whatever that joins the network has to manually choose to share the info with the boys. it could just have to be amazon saying ‘yes’, im not sure, def something to look into
They say that, but I can almost guarantee you the feds get direct access without asking and keep it a secret, because that’s how tech companies do things in general. Flock cameras/data is openly used to provide a combined search of all cameras, this partnership implies Ring is going to go further in that direction too.
In addition to likely not giving a fuck, in jurisdictions with more sense than the USA, they can get warrants.
Yea fr though. What if my city/county/state government wants to opt in and I don’t want that?
Anyone know good open source alternatives or I guess no golem source too if need be
Maybe the pinecube from pine64
I found the Lorex brand of products that stores footage locally. Internet connection is not required either, as it is either hardwired or paired directly with the NVR wirelessly.
I use reolink cameras isolated to their own VLAN and strictly controlled. NVR is an Intel NUC with Coral running Frigate. It was the cheapest/best solution for me. Tough to find things that aren’t insanely expensive.
unifisorry, not open source afaik
Key point: "Flock users can request that Ring doorbell users share footage to help with “evidence collection and investigative work.”
This is not any kind of live link. It is just another way to request a specific video recording be shared by the user. The user has full control. Ring already has the same system in place on their “neighborhood” platform.
Ring just implemented facial rec that cant be turned off by the user and Amazon is buddies with Palantir. If you really think the user has any choice when police come through for an investigation, youve got another thing coming
I appreciate the optimism…
… For now.
Because of the implication.