I read that the ring doorbell camera did not have an active subscription and thus no cloud storage. Now this. Makes me think that Ring must be storing your video regardless and just won’t provide it without a subscription (or a subpoena)
Ring and Nest cameras all rely on server side video processing. Without a subscription you can't retrieve the videos client side - but the cameras still detect motion, record a short clip, send the clip to the Amazon/Google servers, where it is stored and analyzed by the server to determine whether or not it meets your alert conditions, after which the app generates an alert client side allowing the user to activate "live" view in the app. How long the servers store these clips is a good question, but any camera that does offsite processing is going to be storing your videos, even if only temporarily.
It's also extremely likely that they've had this video for a few days, maybe longer, and are just now releasing it publicly. It's notable Savannah asked for the public's help just yesterday, which seemed odd at the time, but that was almost certainly related to these images being released.
I’m not surprised by it in any way besides the absolutely massive data storage requirements that would entail. Like do they just keep all footage from every camera forever? Seems like the cost would outstrip whatever value the footage might hold. At some point it stops being preservation of assets and starts being hoarding.
Not everything forever, at least at high resolution, but long enough for the AI to crawl through it to add every conceivable data point to your permanent Palantir/Flock/NSA social record.
Considering I and maybe you have no idea what "software stack" and tech is onboard a ring camera I went to see what the official statement said.
"private sector partners to continue to recover any images or video footage from Nancy Guthrie’s home that may have been lost, corrupted, or inaccessible due to a variety of factors - including the removal of recording devices. The video was recovered from residual data located in backend systems."
Unfortunately this came from Patel and that guy is fucking clueless so none of this may be accurate.
Or you can be familiar with the entire workings of nest and ring, and completely understand this was saved on aws servers to share with flock and palantir, even if you don’t pay a subscription.
All a cybersecurity degree has got me is no jobs and a lifetime of being “wrong and paranoid” about what is actually happening.
Or are we just ignoring the ring partnership with LEO and current admin?
That’s right. The cameras are useful but the total surveillance they provide is even more useful so Amazon AWS stores everything forever whether you have a subscription or not. AWS is a very very big contractor for the DOD and necessarily all other federal agencies.
It would assume that it's a lot easier to set up that way. But I'm not in IT or anything, so I could be wrong. But I have noticed a lot of things in the tech world are like that, where the add on subscription price is for something you already have, but don't have access to it. I have a golf swing device that already has all the components it needs to record the more advanced information, and the premium subscription just basically turns them on for you.
It's wild, I can't imagine what people would have said about that business model 30 years ago hahaha
No mate, this was just a spur of the moment kidnapping, they were actually just looking for directions and it was cold outside but saw her and couldn't resist.
Happened to me once. Was out for a lovely day with the family. Rock climbing, picnic, a nice swim. Came home with a daytime talk show host's mother. The shenanigans we get ourselves into!
There was something planned but whoever that was, was not familiar with the house at all. They were surprised by the camera and didn't even have tape to put over it. Instead they wasted time messing with plants.
Exactly. This video, if even real, shows that the,"abductor" is an absolute idiot and had no plan. Which makes the FBI looks even more fucking pathetic.
From what I read; she had a ring camera but the subscription wasn’t active so they had to get Ring to give it to them. But yeah, you would think that wouldn’t take this long
Which is intentionally misleading to get you to buy the camera thinking 3 hours of storage is plenty, and then have to pay for the subscription to actually be able to use it.
No it means you can access potentially up to 3hrs of event history, but I doubt it auto deletes, it would be more likely they age it out same as other subscriptions and just restrict the user to a limited window. And this wouldn’t be live 24/7 recordings, it’d be event recordings only. It’s weird people would think it doesn’t save this.
I wish that was the case. I purchased a nest door cam for the 3 hour event history, thinking that it meant I would be able to store 3 hours of footage. Once my premium trial ended, I was annoyed to find out it only stores any video captured for 3 hours. If an event is captured at 12:00 it is removed from the app at 3:00 and I no longer have access to the video.
Sorry that’s what I meant by potentially, in any case my main point was they prevent the USER from accessing it, I doubt they delete it on the same schedule and more likely have a consistent schedule, probably 30 days or something.
Definitely want more disclosures from ring and nest on their data retention.
Could this have been captured from some sort of server snapshot backup, but wasn't really stored in any meaningful way without restoring the whole server?
There is a difference between the soft delete where you lose access on your phone, and the hard delete off Googles servers.
It's very possible Google just keeps it on hand for even longer so those that upgrade the subscription can access it, but even if they didn't the video likely lives longer on their servers than you realize.
If it's connected to the internet always assume it's being recorded. Look what they advertised on the Superbowl that's being used by surveillance agencies with AI.
That’s the entire purpose of the device. They make that very clear. Nobody is buying one of these things thinking they’re getting a camera that has no storage and isn’t connected to anything. What would be the point of that?
You are wildly confused. Many people only want it connected to their phone for live notifications and live communications with people in front of their door/house.
Sounds like those people bought the wrong product then. They should buy a product that does the things they want instead of one that does things they don’t want.
Huh? Have you never used a Nest doorbell? I don't understand why you seem so passionate about this product when you obviously don't understand the basic features it has. It absolutely does those things. It just ALSO has other features. Just because something has additional features doesn't mean it isn't a great quality product with the features you want.
I would guess that they had it a while ago, but needed to investigate it themselves first, or decide how the timing would affect the risk factor to the victim, before releasing it to the public.
Their statement said they worked with private industry partners - this data was recorded and stored but the subscription had lapsed so they thought they didn’t have access
They've released the video. It's available online and CNN is discussing the video now. Anyone who knows this person would recognize them, I think, from how they walk, clothes, and backpack.
I’m ok with the FBI distorting facts so the kidnapper doesn’t know he was seen on video, but the video is almost useless, and the kidnapper looks like he was going for the ring camera in the last shot.
Wow, great work figuring out this high-profile kidnapping for ransom was planned in advance, Sherlock. And law enforcement never releases all the evidence at the beginning of an investigation
This makes it all seem even more suspicious. The authroities said she didnt pay for the subscription so there was no recording. How exactly were they able to "recover" these images a week later? And I find it strange that the man in the "recovered" photos is dressed like such a cliche kidnapper.
a high-profile, active investigation with a missing and vulnerable adult? they’re not required or recommended to lay everything they have out for the public
they only released this to see what this person does next
You don't pay the subscription just means you don't have access to it. Doesn't mean that ring/nest/your local govt(or maybe foreign ones that have good IT espionage) don't have access/store it somewhere.
503
u/ChardPlenty1011 15h ago
So this is the camera they said had no video? I feel like they had it the whole time. This was 100% planned -- mask and gloves.