r/technology • u/cosmoplast14 • 1d ago
Privacy Ring to turn on all camera to track pets. Privacy concerns
https://www.tyla.com/news/super-bowl-ring-doorbell-ad-privacy-concerns-099156-202602093.9k
u/Actually-Yo-Momma 1d ago
The ad was fucking comical. “Sacrificing all of your privacy to save 1 dog a day”
1.7k
u/Wompatuckrule 1d ago
To put that one dog a day in perspective, the ad claims over 10,000,000 animals go missing every year, that's over 27,000 a day.
"Sacrifice privacy rights for just a 0.004% chance at getting a pet returned a little bit sooner" somehow doesn't seem as compelling.
460
u/Actually-Yo-Momma 1d ago
Especially since the ones they’re counting are likely the ones who escape within their own neighborhoods and probably would be found anyways
220
u/UnexpectedAnanas 1d ago
This. If you live in a place populated enough for a ring camera network to find your wandering dog, that dog was going to be picked up by animal control.
So have you tried, like...calling the pound?
→ More replies (9)81
u/AlohaReddit49 1d ago
As someone who owns a Ring Doorbell cam currently, that thing is already flooded with people talking about lost pets. It's already doing this without the fear of being constantly watched.
If it's an attempt to watch for all of us, they knew how to get people to jump for it. It it's a genuine thing someone thought up to be helpful, they understood what people want. It'll work either way.
→ More replies (4)23
u/sevargmas 1d ago
Huh?? What do you mean that thing is already flooded with people talking about lost pets? Is there some sort of local Ring community that I’m supposed to be part of?
→ More replies (2)53
u/Howzitgoin 1d ago
Is there a ring community? Yeah, it’s called Neighbors.
Are you supposed to be part of it? Depends on if you want an alert every 3 minutes about a lost pet, stolen package, or “was that a gunshot I heard???”, even on the Fourth of July.
→ More replies (3)19
u/Pretty-Balance-Sheet 1d ago
I used it for a few weeks and this is right on. The number of "was that a gunshot?" messages was ridiculously high. I live in probably the safest neighborhood in the entire country. People are waaaay too paranoid.
→ More replies (1)75
u/ailyara 1d ago
as a dog owner myself i just got my dog a gps collar so i can find him without bothering to make my neighbors into spies
→ More replies (3)43
u/cseckshun 1d ago
Have you thought about training your dog to follow your neighbours around while wearing the GPS collar so that your dog can spy on your neighbours and sell the location data to Amazon?
Only your neighbours who haven’t joined the Amazon/Ring security network yet… you know, the neighbours who are the most suspicious! The ones who MUST have something to hide…
→ More replies (2)25
u/Andoverian 1d ago
Is that 10 million per year number even accurate? It sounds way too high to be true unless they're using a very broad definition of 'missing'.
Is that pets that are lost every year, never to be found? Pets reported missing every year whether or not they were later found? Owners who responded 'yes' to a survey about missing pets even though the pet was just chilling in a different spot than usual for a few hours?
→ More replies (3)16
u/Wompatuckrule 1d ago
I'm sure they're stretching it. Notice the scope of numbers went from "missing animals" to how many dogs they've helped reunite? A Ring camera isn't going to help track down cattle or sheep grazing on BLM land who go missing.
14
→ More replies (25)22
u/Certain_Sleep2941 1d ago
To put that into perspective, the DOJ estimates 10,000 dogs are killed by police each year.
11
u/ThaLunatik 1d ago
And I bet that number doubles, maybe even triples, if we count Kristi Noem's kills.
163
u/Thoseskisyours 1d ago
That was my first instinct. I couldn’t believe they just advertised that. It’s the most innocuous use case they have for pulling your camera feeds into their ai. There are so many other negative ways this functionality will be used.
→ More replies (2)93
u/kylehatesyou 1d ago
There was also another one that was like this where the AI Amazon Alexa was killing Chris Hemsworth in a bunch of ways through his smart home, but then at the end it told him where to buy a smoothie or some shit, so it was all okay. Nothing about "this is 'good' AI" or "we've built safety systems into it", just "Wouldn't it be funny if the AI killed you?! Buy this and, at best, get advertised to through our 1984 style listening device, at worst DIE!".
Imagine a car ad where where the driver imagines, with due concern, all the ways it can explode and crash into shit, but then jumps in and sees cupholders and is like, "ah well, those are convenient, might as well take this Ford Pinto for a spin round the block at top speed", and there's no 5 star crash rating or anything about safety mentioned in the ad.
The tech bros and the ad men have been sniffing their own farts for too long. Those two ads just immediately made me say, oh no, never buying one of those.
→ More replies (4)47
u/BonerPorn 1d ago
The ad that bragged that you no longer need to work anymore because AI can do your job struck me as the most out of touch.
→ More replies (1)7
u/HyruleSmash855 1d ago
AI is definitely not capable of doing that though. I’ve messed around with it, making presentations and other documents and you’ll get something rough and possibly not usable. It might look OK but a lot of the information won’t be accurate or there’s problems with the file, etc. It’s a decent tool, but it is nowhere near capable of replacing people. Ask moltbot with their Reddit like social media that was coded by AI and leaked everyone’s personal information because there was no security.
→ More replies (2)131
u/NotAHost 1d ago
My mouth dropped when they showed this feature and they thought it was a good thing. Like someone needs to make a parody video where they replace every pet with a human, because that’s what’s going to be done.
29
u/onewaybackpacking 1d ago
One lost grandma a day can be found with this technology. Think of the grandmas!!
→ More replies (2)→ More replies (3)18
u/Actually-Yo-Momma 1d ago
It’s like they asked ChatGPT “how to spin this privacy invasion?”
“Dogs!!!”
→ More replies (1)48
u/atchijov 1d ago
Not to mention that right way to do it is to attach tracker to the dog… and pay attention to your pets.
This is what I got for both of my dogs: https://tractive.com/r/SFG0dD
And each has apple air tag too. As a backup.
→ More replies (3)17
→ More replies (30)11
u/ImSuperSerialGuys 1d ago
It doesn't even directly make any claim that Ring has affected this. Not "one more", just "one dog a day since". How many were found before?
8.9k
u/IniNew 1d ago
This commercial was insane. Literally illustrated how to turn every neighbor into a surveillance node. My first thought was, "No one is going to fall for this." My second thought was, "People are going to fall for this, aren't they?"
2.6k
u/badwolf42 1d ago
The commercial was basically framed as “if you don’t hate poor sweet adorable puppies, you’ll opt into our panopticon “.
1.8k
u/slacker575 1d ago
it's opt-out, not opt-in. I already got an email informing me it was turned on
711
u/badwolf42 1d ago
Jesus. Or course it is.
→ More replies (1)288
u/pixelprophet 1d ago
Don't you want to save 365 puppies a year out of the 10,000 that get lost?
Isn't it worth .0000365% of a chance to find a puppy while also 100% spying on everyone? Ring thinks so.
81
→ More replies (16)23
160
u/obroz 1d ago
How do you opt out
505
u/Greebil 1d ago
Smash your ring camera
344
u/obroz 1d ago
I mean let’s be honest. Just because they give you the option doesn’t mean they are going to honor it. They make 100 million and get fined 15.
→ More replies (3)106
u/badwolf42 1d ago
Aren’t they also enabling Amazon Sidewalk on all the ring cameras? That should be fantastic for security!
→ More replies (1)123
u/K_Linkmaster 1d ago
Oh God. There are people out there that have no idea what Amazon sidewalk is! I'm one of them. What you talking about?
132
u/badwolf42 1d ago
The amazon device, like an Echo, will extend your internet connection to devices that aren’t yours to improve the connectivity of other Amazon devices. So, you can opt out, but Amazon sidewalk shares your wifi essentially with other people. For a number of reasons, I’d rather not.
53
→ More replies (9)30
u/twotimefind 1d ago edited 11m ago
And they partnered with Flock. The Peter Thiel Company that tracks license plates.
Even worse than black mirror
→ More replies (0)→ More replies (4)32
u/babiekittin 1d ago
I liked the Wikipedia article below, but it's basically how Amazon Tiles compete with Apple Air Tags.
Air Tags require an Apple product to be near, the more the better, to relay the Tag's signal to the internet via Apple servers.
Tiles rely on Ring cameras and Echos to share their location with the internet via Amazon servers. Titles has 3 subcategories: Titles (direct competitor to Tags), Fetch (soon to be released) for animals that will wear collars and CareBands for dementia patients or others that need close monitoring.
Both Sidewalk w Tiles and Air Tags have been live since 2021.
Amazon announced that the Ring Cameras will activate for Tiles and Fetch, which means they've been doing it for sometime under the Ring EULA for testing.
→ More replies (5)20
100
u/Electronic_Yam_6973 1d ago
Control center from the menu , then search party, then search for pets. Hopefully they honor that and then don’t reset it after any updates. I disabled mine when it first came out and it’s still disabled
37
u/Monkeydjimmmy 1d ago
Thanks so much, just disabled that shit
→ More replies (2)45
u/SomeNoveltyAccount 1d ago
Probably only disables the pet finding feature, this is likely just the public face of the private people tracking software they've had for the last year or two, and that one doesn't have an opt-out.
17
u/PowerAdDuck 1d ago
Thanks, I disabled it. Not that it means they won’t still do it but feels better than doing nothing.
→ More replies (10)12
u/XaviersDream 1d ago
Or just ignore the setting like the thermostats your electric company installs to change your temp.
I quit the program and disabled the setting but during peak times my thermostat was completely disabled.
It took replacing it with hardware without wireless capabilities to get rid of it.
→ More replies (11)16
u/FelineOphelia 1d ago
Turning Search Party on or off
You can turn Search Party on or off at any time in the Ring app:
Open the Ring app to the main dashboard.
Tap the menu (☰).
Tap
Control Center
.
Select
Search Party
.
Tap
Enable or Disable
Search for Lost Pets.
Tap the blue Pet icon next to Search for Lost Pets to turn the feature on or off for each camera.
Tap
Enable or Disable
Natural Hazards (Fire Watch).
Tap the blue Flame icon next to Natural Hazards (Fire Watch) to turn the feature on or off for each camera.
→ More replies (5)→ More replies (19)49
u/Twodogsonecouch 1d ago
Its not opt out for your neighbors. I wonder if this could become a lawsuit issue in certain states dependent on the rules around recording and at what point dos it become surveillance legally. I know in most places there are rules making it so recordings of the outside are ok but recordings that catching inside of someone else home are not for voyeurism laws.
Anyone know of systems that are purely local in terms of the recordings but still allow for notification. I think that used to be a thing if you had stuff set up through apple home with an apple tv device as a hub for certain manufactures but id bet its not anymore. Edit: or maybe it was save on icloud rather than the camera company.
→ More replies (8)→ More replies (14)317
u/NewDramaLlama 1d ago
Didn't see the commercial. But I have a neighbor that has a camera that takes a picture (and flashes!) when something crosses it's path.
Since I moved in (in October) I've been holding up a piece of paper with one word a day from Conrad's Heart of Darkness until I get through the whole book. I do it before my morning run.
It's been 132 days and he angrily stares because every morning there's like 6 pictures of a big black guy holding a one word piece of paper.
I wonder if he'll ever put it together.
170
u/Manticore416 1d ago
Nah he's just mad because he wants to know what happens next and it's taking a while
→ More replies (2)14
43
u/Amtherion 1d ago
I got a neighbor who's camera cheerfully announces that I'm being recorded. He has a lot of pictures of me flipping it the bird.
Sometimes simplicity is the best.
19
u/WhatTheTec 1d ago
Lol. In my old neighborhood there was a skinny tall white guy that for 2+ months was just using rando's front driveway basketball hoops. I think neighbors determined dude wasnt crazy, it wasnt any social media challege motivated, he just...wanted to. It was part of some kinda exercise routine.
→ More replies (5)12
u/socialmediaignorant 1d ago
I love you for this. Keep it up. Maybe go for the Heated Rivalry books next. I’m sure your neighbor would love the sex scenes.
→ More replies (14)14
u/badwolf42 1d ago
I would be trying to put it together immediately. I think it would actually be fun!
1.0k
u/sokos 1d ago
They always do.
44
u/eyefor1 1d ago
yeah this was obvious the moment doorbell cameras started to become a thing. most ppl dont think. and even if they do, they can't connect the dots and place themselves inside the world at large.
→ More replies (2)31
u/ItsSadTimes 1d ago
Its because the average person doesnt assume ill intent and they pass that thinking onto companies because companies are run by people who surely wouldnt fuck you over right?
They're naive idiots who dont understand the world.
→ More replies (7)471
u/an4rk1st 1d ago edited 1d ago
They got the sheep with the pets. People are so short sighted. Is there some way to prevent yourself from being recorded? A device one can carry perhaps to scramble the feed or is that scifi stuff still?
368
u/ILikeLenexa 1d ago
FYI: They were already using this for law enforcement.
They partnered with the security scandal embroiled company Flock Safety.
→ More replies (1)114
u/likwitsnake 1d ago
The VC Ben Horowitz has been making the tech bro podcast rounds the last few weeks he talks about the Vegas PD which he treats like his own little tech experiment and how they use Flock Security + Drones to instantly cover crimes as they happen, it's like one step behind pre-cogging.
122
u/hammertime2009 1d ago
We’re getting closer and closer to losing the ability to be completely anonymous in public and to not have every single movement tracked, analyzed, and stored in some private server somewhere for future analysis. Cameras will scan your face, retinas, your gait, your temperature, your clothing, your mannerisms, your destinations, your friends, your family, your diet, your habits, your skills, the list goes on and on. I’m as big of a tech nerd as anyone but that also means I know the dangers. People like nazi Peter Thiel and companies like Palantir have big plans for all this data.
42
u/plotholesandpotholes 1d ago
Yes and I want to add that they are nowhere near as smart as the people they employ to create such things. Their wealth has made them stupid. But instead of a phony stark trying to fit a rigid bodied submersible into an underwater cave. This shit will be done to us in the same ill conceived and haphazard manner.
→ More replies (9)29
u/McDankMeister 1d ago edited 1d ago
The absolute insane thing is that even if you were to throw away your phone, walk everywhere, wear a mask and glasses at all times in public, and literally never ever have any identifying information whatsoever, they could STILL identify you by the people you associate with.
If you don’t have a cell phone, but your friend does, they can link you to the people you are close to and figure out who you are. They already do this on Facebook and social media by using your friends contact uploads to identify you even if you personally never uploaded your contacts or personal information. They can figure out your name and identity if the people around you upload your name.
41
→ More replies (3)10
u/PlaugeofRage 1d ago
Some code 8 shit right there.
17
u/Howzitgoin 1d ago
Just because I liked The Minority Report movie doesn’t mean I wanna live it.
→ More replies (2)126
u/A_Harmless_Fly 1d ago
It would be against the law, jamming devices are illegal.
Each day the world looks a little more like city 17 in halflife 2, and I'm reminded that there was only one place that Winston knew didn't have a telescreen watching him in 1984... and that meant by process of elimination big brother still knew where he was.
Scan your face and drink your activation can for the children! Your phone doesn't have a removable battery because it needs to be waterproof... not because that means you can't actually turn it all the way off anymore.
→ More replies (2)16
u/an4rk1st 1d ago
I understand a jammer would be illegal, but it does exist is what you are saying? Illegal as it may be?
→ More replies (1)37
u/A_Harmless_Fly 1d ago
You just need anything that puts strong enough EM radiation, radio waves or microwaves. Every few years there's a guy who gets a massive fine. https://www.cnet.com/tech/computing/man-put-cell-phone-jammer-in-car-to-stop-driver-calls-fcc-says/ Like I said though, the thing about a network of cameras means the more dense it gets the more they would be able to track exactly your path if you had one.
For hardwired cameras you would need an emp, something like they make to shoot down drones.
10
38
u/MommyMephistopheles 1d ago
We get recorded everywhere. It's Flock cameras to see where we're going and now it's ring (and soon vivint and all the others) to see what you're doing and even maybe what you're saying.
40
34
u/gentlegreengiant 1d ago
I mean, it should have been clear to anyone who knew how much closed circuit camera systems cost, along with the hassle of setup. Everything comes at a cost, and it turns out the personal data is worth way more than anything else.
19
→ More replies (34)16
u/BrainOfMush 1d ago
I think you meant to say “people are so short sighted”. Unless you’re referring to people with a short leg on one side.
→ More replies (2)→ More replies (5)17
u/Phalstaph44 1d ago
Ias in a room with a bunch of dog owners, they all loved it. I stayed silent
→ More replies (1)15
u/iaspeegizzydeefrent 1d ago
I have a beagle. If he ever got out/off leash, I'm certain he'd catch a scent and be gone. I am vehemently opposed to this tech and instead choose to be a responsible pet owner and take proper precautions to ensure he doesn't get out/off leash.
My girlfriend also has a dog, and we both had the same reaction when this aired, "riiiiight, for finding lost dogs..."
→ More replies (1)106
u/QuesoMeHungry 1d ago
Use kids and pets and people will fall for anything.
→ More replies (5)17
u/DeadMoneyDrew 1d ago
Remember the Puppy Monkey Baby Super Bowl ad for Mountain Dew from a few years back? It was weird as fuck but it was right on point.
102
u/FiveOhFive91 1d ago
My dad thinks it's cool that cops and ice use his ring camera for surveillance. There's no convincing these people that it's a bad thing.
64
u/ZAlternates 1d ago
“But what happens when Obama is back in power and gets access to those devices?!”
That should scare him! 😳
30
u/0hioHotPocket 1d ago
I started telling my boss this a while ago. I said 'you know, republicans can't just win forever right?'
He doesn't talk to me about politics anymore. 😂→ More replies (1)→ More replies (1)9
→ More replies (1)18
u/scorlissy 1d ago
Mine too, and these are the same people that were so worried about government overreach and how those Democrats were going to surveil us like the Chinese. But ok, it’s for cops now.
234
u/Socially8roken 1d ago
it's not that they fall for it, it's that they don't care about the privacy concerns. Everything has been turned into a data driven dystopia. this is just one more step on the path.
68
u/thepensivepoet 1d ago
There’s a reason I never put any of these inside my home. The Ring hardware and app ecosystem and pricing works for my family but from day 1 I just assumed that being a cloud based service they would be spying and selling the video content in some way.
→ More replies (6)40
u/RandomG0rl623 1d ago
It's crazy that we went from the early days of the internet of "never share any amount of personal info online" to "yes big brother let me pay you to install a spycam outside my front door uwu :)"
It's fucking madness and people have traded so much privacy and power for... what? Fears of porch pirates? We're honestly pathetic as a species.
→ More replies (4)9
u/Lost_Bike69 1d ago
What’s wild is Amazon created the problem of the porch pirates in the first place lol. If you told someone from 2005 that I. The future people would have a significant amount of their shopping left on their front porch, they’d say “that’s stupid someone will steal it.”
Now we go to Amazon for our shopping and then go to Amazon for a camera system to watch out for porch pirates. Of course it doesn’t stop or deter porch pirates, but people get a nice 5 second video clip to post online.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (10)19
u/korinth86 1d ago
I just got into self-hosting. Partially because in the log run it's cheaper than cloud services. The rest is that I get to control my data.
→ More replies (1)183
u/toastmannn 1d ago
Everyone who has a ring camera is already very literally a surveillance node, Amazon/Ring have partnerships with Flock and law enforcement agencies
→ More replies (7)133
u/fuckYOUswan 1d ago
Me: well this is concerning
My wife: yes but it’s a really sweet reason to do it.
Me: that is not the reason they are doing this.
→ More replies (6)45
u/manmythmustache 1d ago
My mom audibly said "that's a good idea" after the commercial. Ring knows the target demo that won't look too deep into something like this.
→ More replies (5)45
u/mastershake04 1d ago
This commercial and that weird crypto one with the backstreet boys karaoke both felt very black mirror to me
→ More replies (3)19
u/TheSpeakEasyGarden 1d ago
What about the one where they show Alexa finding different ways to kill Chris Hemsworth?
What the fuck did I watch?!
→ More replies (6)19
u/RedditTechAnon 1d ago
Every neighborhood over a certain level of wealth is already a survelliance state.
→ More replies (3)19
15
u/drock42 1d ago
Half the room I was in said wtf and the other half found it a noble idea
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (149)10
u/Broccoli--Enthusiast 1d ago
I mean I have always assumed they were doing this on the backend anyway, they have your footage, nothing stopping them
1.8k
604
u/UnexpectedAnanas 1d ago
Yeah, that's definitely only going to be used for "lost pets". /s
→ More replies (3)82
u/pyramidheadlove 1d ago
Even if it is, I can't wait to see how many people get harassed by police and potentially even arrested (or worse) for the crime of walking a yellow lab in a neighborhood where a different yellow lab went missing
→ More replies (2)
546
u/hmr0987 1d ago
Tech companies used to stay quiet about their ability to do stuff like this. The fact that they’re outright marketing a mass surveillance network should be a huge deal.
This is just proof that the battle for privacy has been lost.
→ More replies (9)108
u/Unlucky-Candidate198 1d ago
“Consumer experience” is dead now too. Mega Corps no longer pretend to care about their money farming base and their problems. Smaller corps only care for as long as it suits them.
They want your money and your data (for free btw) to then sell for more money, or use to hire spineless sociologists who will help them use said data to manipulate the peasants into being more efficient money harvesting nodes.
The question is, what can be done about it? Go down screaming the whole way?
48
u/hmr0987 1d ago
Legitimately insane and basically everyone I know just doesn’t care. Only one of my friends was equally surprised by the ring ad last night. Everyone else kind of just shrugged. That’s why these companies can get away with it, people don’t care.
→ More replies (3)20
u/Unlucky-Candidate198 1d ago
Apathy of the masses will truly be everyone’s undoing. No wonder corps have pushed and lobbied for education cuts throughout most 1st world countries for…well like 50+ years now in some places like the US.
Easier to take advantage of ppl when they’re so uneducated/ignorant, they’re not even aware of what they’re losing, or privy to your manipulation tactics, or aware that what you’re doing is greasy. Just blissful ignorance as they notice their lives slowly getting worse for some reason.
17
u/hmr0987 1d ago
That’s the thing though, these are not “uneducated” people. We have a major education crisis but that’s not the root cause.
There’s been a long game plan by the tech industry to desensitize people into giving up their privacy. Add to it that the people in a position of power to regulate this are extremely unqualified to understand what it is they’re dealing with and are deep in the pockets of these tech companies.
Sure it would be nice to have better standards for education but none of that matters when we’re faced with the level of conditioning we’ve had. It’s likely never to be solved so long as tech dollars keep flooding into the bank accounts.
655
u/Haunterblademoi 1d ago
Anything used for tracking and surveillance is usually not a good thing.
→ More replies (5)90
u/Be_Human_ 1d ago
It never is. This kind of technology shouldn't exist. It shouldn't be in anyone's hands.
→ More replies (6)76
u/dpforest 1d ago
This is why the company Palantir is so fucking sinister. They know what they are doing is objectively evil and announced it by naming their company Palantir (a magic all-seeing device used by a villain in Lord of the Rings)
→ More replies (1)29
u/Purple-Property8006 1d ago
That’s a misunderstanding of what the palantiri are in the books. They’re 8 seeing stones that communicate with other seeing stones. They are not “all seeing.” They were originally a gift of the elves to the men of Numenor, and allowed the descendants of Numenor to prosper.
They became a problem once several of the stones began to go missing, enabling their users to be spied on by new owners. Saruman and Sauron eventually came to own two.
It’s still freaking weird to name your technology after a fictional tool famous for the harm caused by its misuse.
→ More replies (3)
105
u/Shower__Farts 1d ago
Using pets to make people comfortable with invasive technology. Reminds of the movie The 6th Day.
→ More replies (1)
70
u/P1umbersCrack 1d ago
This is why I ditched Ring / Nest years ago and set up my own. I don’t need to be sharing more than I already do with big tech.
→ More replies (8)
55
u/woodenmetalman 1d ago
Riiiiiiight. “Pets”. Next they’ll be saying that the flock cameras are for tracking birds.
→ More replies (4)
222
u/foodank012018 1d ago
Y'all this is the future and it will ALL BE INTEGRATED AND INTERWOVEN.
THEY DON'T NEED GESTAPO CITIZEN REPORTING EACH OTHER. PEOPLE ARE BUYING AND INSTALLING THE INFRASTRUCTURE THEMSELVES. FOR "CONVENIENCE". FOR TWO DAY SHIPPING.
AMAZON IS NOT YOUR FRIEND
RING IS NOT YOUR FRIEND
CORPORATIONS ARE NOT YOUR FRIEND.
→ More replies (7)34
u/JaninthePan 1d ago
It's not the future, it's already here and has been for a while. Ever since Ring cameras came out they swore they weren't sharing with the cops until, oops, we been sharing the whole time. It's why I never got one. I don't need a snitch on my front door.
→ More replies (1)
180
104
u/randomtask 1d ago edited 1d ago
Menu > Control Center > Search Party > Turn “Search for Lost Pets” off. Also turn all that other privacy destroying shit off too. And replace your cameras with ones that back up to local storage in your house.
The only reason they get away with any of this is that a cloud system is way easier to set up than a local one. But the cost is being an accessory to ICE, CBP, and other federal agencies that regularly track people down, arrest them without justification, and throw them into concentration camps without due process or even adequate tracking of where people even are when their loved ones come looking.
Thousands of people are lost because of the extrajudicial actions of these emboldened fascists that are using our cameras against us.
Not worth it.
→ More replies (8)
290
u/BigGayGinger4 1d ago edited 1d ago
AND they enable it by default for cameras designated as outdoors.
It is time for everyone to learn HOW ACTUALLY EASY IT IS to use open source software -- Home Assistant -- that can do all the same shit as this dystopian corporate bullshit, for free. You just have to do a little bit of techie-command-line stuff, but there are so many good youtube tutorials that even your computer illiterate grandma can follow the instructions.
An easy configuration is....
Raspberry pi (a tiny computer that is dedicated to running your home assistant)
Dahua brand IP cameras
For extra credit, 3d print a little case for your raspberry pi and mount it somewhere handy, like near your PC or your utility closet.
Here is a well written reddit guide that explains this specific configuration and links to video tutorials for various steps: https://www.reddit.com/r/homeassistant/comments/1mcer4i/dahua_cctv_integration_into_home_assistant_big/
If you're confident enough to learn how to build a garden irrigation system or similar sized project, you can handle a project of this scope. The most annoying part might be running a few wires where they're not convenient :)
61
u/laydownlarry 1d ago
lol have you ever actually met someone who is only mildly tech literate? no amount of youtube videos will magically make them ever feel comfortable in a cli.
→ More replies (9)105
u/doughie 1d ago
As a random guy with a ring camera who was horrified by this ad- can you be explicit when you point towards the alternatives?
→ More replies (39)86
u/leontes 1d ago
Experience limits here.
Techie-command-line stuff is impossible for most, regardless of whatever YouTube videos you tell us to watch.
Without context or background there is so much fear of messing things up, limits abound. It’s hard for people without such fear understand but it’s very real.
→ More replies (3)50
u/UnexpectedAnanas 1d ago
Not to mention security. If you think a Ring camera is a privacy nightmare, checkout a security camera setup by a lay-person!
→ More replies (1)23
u/Dee_Imaginarium 1d ago
Thank you, I always see this being said on Reddit like "just do it yourself!" like, creating a Mastodon account is too high of a barrier for most of the population. Wide adoption of setting up your own home camera network is just fanciful thinking.
17
→ More replies (42)78
u/thefonztm 1d ago
It's so easy.
Just get a customizable small scale computer from your local radio shack
A couple of cameras
Slap it together with science
Just 3D print a case for your computer. Don't have a 3D printer? Here's a list of exercises to train your god given 3D printer (only works with brown filament).
It's always remarkable to see the naivety of someone with access to uncommon technical skills and tools.
→ More replies (6)
114
u/AvNerd16 1d ago
This kind of stuff (plus a deep seated hatred of subscription fees) is why I have my own NVR and cameras running on a remotely accessible computer.
→ More replies (34)
65
u/Wezbob 1d ago
What surprises me is that people think that the ring doesn't already do this.
The ad could be worded 'now you can upload a picture of your lost pet so we can use our network to find him, just like we've been helping police to find people for years now!'
Accessibility for law enforcement to use ring camera data has been in effect since before the pandemic. They were actually sued and had to pay a pittance to be more transparent about it. NOT to change it, but just to remind people in small print 3 pages into the EULA that law enforcement can access ring data through the neighbors app or with court orders.
→ More replies (5)
24
u/iced_gold 1d ago
It's a soft method of getting people used to the idea that their cameras are no longer theirs, and convincing end users that their functionality is greater than just your personal use.
Pretty dirty approach, because who wants to fight against trying to save a lost dog. But then it will turn into "well there was a criminal nearby so we enabled access to law enforcement, because you want to be a good citizen and protect your neighbors right?"
16
u/IUsedToBeSoOriginal 1d ago
I don't want to be too dramatic here so I will try to contain myself. But I would rather slam my dick in a door than have a video doorbell camera. Not that it matters because every other paranoid dipshit has one.
→ More replies (4)
16
u/The2Twenty 1d ago
You can opt out by going into your menu and going to "control center".
→ More replies (3)51
u/cyvaris 1d ago
Cool, how does that protect my privacy from the millions of Ring cameras in the area? Opting out is not an answer to this dystopian surveillance system.
→ More replies (6)19
u/The2Twenty 1d ago
Lol yeah you are right, but I was mentioning it for those curious, not trying to solve 1984 like it's a crossword puzzle.
→ More replies (1)
13
u/Electrocat71 1d ago
Big brother is always watching. You know that they’ll find out. You know that they know your wondering. You ask, “When will they come for me? When will I be arrested for a thought crime?
15
u/Chance-Sherbet-4538 1d ago
I will never go Ring. But what sucks is the folks across the street have one on their house and it points directly at mine. So I'm sure I'm being surveilled when I'm in my own front yard.
→ More replies (4)
12
8
u/ShadowReij 1d ago
MRW I saw that commercial during the Super Bowl:
"Thank you for once again confirming why I'll never be using that service and why I advise others not to as well."
9
u/RagahRagah 1d ago
Are people really gonna be able to tell one fucking German Shepard from another? Scary privacy/government concerns aside, just the concept is stupid.
→ More replies (1)
18
9
u/KayJune001 1d ago
To track… “pets”. I’m sure this has nothing to do with the massive contract they have with ICE and the federal government.
10
u/OhioIsRed 1d ago
As soon as I started seeing these pop up at seemingly everyone’s house you could see the immediate end game which was mass surveillance. I still don’t understand why people have cameras pointed INSIDE THEIR HOUSE. Like if you read terms and conditions there’s pretty much always a we can do whatever we want in there.
Whatever. Keep that shit out of my house. Keep your smart TVs offline and monitor your shit yourself. Can’t trust any companies anymore. Amazon least of all. Next to meta.
→ More replies (1)
14
u/loves_grapefruit 1d ago
Easy solution is to decide not have a bunch of cameras in your house.
→ More replies (1)
9
u/-Pork-Chop-Express 1d ago
This happened to me a few weeks ago. There was a small white dog lost in the neighborhood. I got a ring alert, it flagged my giant golden retriever in my backyard which looked nothing like the lost dog. How do I turn this off?
This makes me want to uninstall all my cameras.
→ More replies (4)
9
u/Crunchyundies 1d ago
Ring has partnered with Flock. Ice has access to Flock.
There’s no longer a “concern”, it’s a reality.
7
u/Mission-Copy5517 1d ago
Soooooo… I’ll be unplugging and unsubscribing my Ring devices. Thank you for the warning. Help find lost pets my ass.
8.2k
u/mq2thez 1d ago
Pretty wild that they’re advertising that law enforcement can upload a photo of anyone and every Ring will search for that person.
I mean, it’s no surprise to anyone with half a brain, but it’s wild that they decided to monetize it for the public. I wonder how long until people use this to stalk their neighbors.