Yall gonna stop paying companies so you can't help build the surveillance state? No? Awesome...
this post was submitted on 06 Oct 2025
872 points (99.3% liked)
A Boring Dystopia
14013 readers
433 users here now
Pictures, Videos, Articles showing just how boring it is to live in a dystopic society, or with signs of a dystopic society.
Rules (Subject to Change)
--Be a Decent Human Being
--Posting news articles: include the source name and exact title from article in your post title
--If a picture is just a screenshot of an article, link the article
--If a video's content isn't clear from title, write a short summary so people know what it's about.
--Posts must have something to do with the topic
--Zero tolerance for Racism/Sexism/Ableism/etc.
--No NSFW content
--Abide by the rules of lemmy.world
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Does anyone have an actual source? A twitter link to a screenshot of another twitter post collage is bullshit sourcing.
Are you too stupid to look it up your self?
load more comments
(1 replies)
This feels like it should be illegal in the EU.
Swede here, our laws disallow private security cameras from filming public areas.
The law is so broad that it interfered with dashcams, disallowing them for years.
load more comments
(15 replies)
load more comments
(7 replies)
Maybe we should bring back covid masks as a privacy/fashion statement now?
Sorry, that's illegal now
876.12 Wearing mask, hood, or other device on public way.—No person or persons over 16 years of age shall, while wearing any mask, hood, or device whereby any portion of the face is so hidden, concealed, or covered as to conceal the identity of the wearer, enter upon, or be or appear upon any lane, walk, alley, street, road, highway, or other public way in this state.
It's part of the big campaign to disrupt criminal anarchy, treason, and other crimes against public order
Illegal for you, I guess. I can wear a mask outside. Good luck down there in the US, guys.
I always thought of them as a privacy aid.
I don't know if it is the same brand, but my morning walks are cheered on by an increasing chorus/wave of "hello, you are currently being recorded". Weird dystopian vibes.
That's so creepy!
This isn't legal where I live. It's not allowed to record public spaces
Same here. All private cameras that record or process data from a public space need to be announced on entrance of a property. Though now that i think about it, idk how ring got passed that law to begin with in 99% of its use cases..
( if its a front door that can only view private property its fine iirc, and if it has public space like roads its a nono )
load more comments
(3 replies)
load more comments
(1 replies)
We need to normalize spray painting the lenses on these things, as well as painting "big brother" on doorways of those that own them. If you enable fascism, you should expect some minor vandalism.
You could start by sending them a letter that informs them of this occuring and how it impacts the world around them before you skip straight to vandalism. I'm sure a lot of people just never considered the extent of that data that is being shared so much as they figured only they would have access to the footage.
load more comments
(4 replies)
Ran into this one Halloween a few years ago. Fuckers had Halloween decorations out, seeming welcoming, and when my kid went up to the door they used their ring camera to make fun of him. Once society falls in the next year or two, that's where I'm going first.
For legal reasons, he jusut told me in PM that he will go there to get more candy. He will take ALL their candy and EAT it in front of the ring camera.
Everyone is so obsessed with surveillance. My uncle has a Ring and even if I told him about this, he wouldn't care; he wants to know who walks past his house. Now the cops will know whether he lied to them because they can subpoena Ring for their records. People are literally giving away their rights for the convenience of not answering the fucking door
The depressing part is that even if you don’t own or use Ring, you will be in their database because those cameras are everywhere. The populace has completely given up all their privacy and have done it willingly.
load more comments
(1 replies)
load more comments
(1 replies)
Great, my downstairs neighbor has one of these things that everyone has to walk by when going in or out of the main building. Why she needs one in an apartment building with a locked main door that you have to unlock yourself for guests is a mystery to me.
Simple - Because she doesn't trust the strangers living in the building any more than the strangers on the outside. I don't blame her one bit. In my lifetime, I've seen countless stories of women being raped and/or murdered by other tenants and the complex 's own security.
In the olden days, before electricity, I used to be friendly with a neighbor, and she became convinced that someone was sneaking into her apartment when she was at work, and stealing her underwear and prescription meds. She took a day off because she was under the weather, and one of the maintenance guys, who was always overly-friendly, unlocked her door, and walked right in.
It turned out that he'd been warned about this before, and he was fired. But if she, or other neighbors, had Ring cameras, they would have caught on to him immediately.
A camera inside her apartment would have the same results without invading the privacy of every other tenant in the building.
In that specific case, but most people want to identify people BEFORE they enter their promises. I'm not opening my door to any cops, for instance, unless they can slide a warrant under the door.
You are missing the point entirely. There are about a million reasonable reasons someone would want to have a doorbell camera, and they have every right to them. The owner of the camera isn't violating your privacy, AMAZON is doing that by collecting the data from a privately-owned source who hasn't given permission to hijack data from their device.
Don't be mad at the tenant for protecting their safety, be mad at Amazon for exploiting that reasonable fear, encouraging people to get Ring cameras, and then stealing the data they collect.
Is it too much to ask for a doorbell camera to operate like a doorbell? We've had peepholes on doors that can be opened and checked when needed for years with no problem, why do we suddenly need constant surveillance of the public commons? This is also on the owner for buying into the scare tactics.
IMO it should be flat out illegal to have any permanent camera that monitors a public space. I don't consent to have a stalker track when I enter and leave my home, I won't consent to have a neighbor do the same.
This isn't the 20th century. We get a LOT more deliveries these days, and a lot of them are expensive small electronics, like phones. They sit there on our front step all day , while we are at work, tempting porch pirates.
About the only thing keeping those jackals from stealing EVERYTHING, is the fact that they know there are cameras on the house, and also most of the houses surrounding the target. That scares off all but the most desperate thieves.
Peep holes are the most basic security precaution, but they are severely limited. They are distorted, and can be easily beaten by ducking. You may look out and see one guy, while three more are below the peep hole. They don't record, so there is no evidence to identify troublemakers later. They can't be accessed remotely, so you can't see who is messing with your house while you're out.
To extend your logic, we shouldn't use cars, because bicycles did the job just fine. Or phones, because we could just yell to our neighbors. Or stoves, because open fires cook food good enough. Or computers, because writing on paper always worked fine. For that matter, why use ballpoint pens, when a quill pen always worked good enough.
Why bother to improve?
Lacking a secure drop off point is a service issue between you and the company delivering the package. It's just as possible to install a lock box or a set a pickup point or require a signed delivery. Complain to Amazon if they're too cheap to do anything about porch piracy. The convenience of opening your door for a package doesn't stand up to my right to privacy.
For the rest of your points: sure, if you really need a camera to watch your private porch then feel free to aim it at the porch and not the entire street. I'm not saying it should be illegal to monitor your property but that your right to 24/7 monitoring ends where your property line does.
They already have porch lock boxes that deliver very guys seldom use. Amazon also has drop off boxes at local businesses.
Once again, the problem isn't with the person who is justifiably concerned about their safety. The problem is Amazon collecting data without permission. Keep your focus on the actual problem, instead of attacking your fellow citizens.
No the problem is the cameras, full stop. You can't shift the cultural safety norm to require millions of remotely accessible cameras and expect a company or government to not abuse them.
The only reason for the popularity of these cameras is big tech's marketing and business strategy. Amazon made a shit ton of money throwing expensive stuff on your unattended doorstep. That leads to obvious problems and the only ways out are:
- Amazon spends money on proper, secure delivery ❌
- The customer pays extra in time and money for an existing solution (CCTVs have existed since 1927) ❌
- Amazon subsidizes a shiny new "solution" which is a thinly veiled data harvesting platform that will generate even more money ✅✅✅
Even if they were concerned with data collection consent, there is no way to get it by the very nature of an always-on, public facing camera. And if it wasn't that, it would be a fancy peephole.
I inherited one of these cameras on a previous home and it objectively provided no real value to me. It recorded the coming/going of my neighbors, bugs flying in front of it, visitors who had already texted their ETA, and delivery guys taking pictures that got sent to me seconds later.
The "peace of mind" factor quickly evaporated when the neighborhood feed was constant posts warning of homeless people or someone walking at night or anyone in a hoodie. Any post where there was a legitimate crime was someone in a mask covering the camera. So how exactly was it keeping anyone safe?
On the other hand, Amazon got incredible value from years of recording everyone's movements. The fact that rubes will pay a few dollars a month to defray hosting costs for the goldmine of a 24/7 live stream is gravy.
load more comments
(1 replies)
load more comments
(2 replies)
In the olden days, before electricity, I used to ...
Are you like 200 years old?
load more comments
(2 replies)
load more comments
(6 replies)
Luckily I live somewhere where they will have to hide it
Americans are fucking weird, they piss and moan about speed and red light cameras, and claim they are unconstitutional. However, the Ring shit is good to go.
Ring cameras don't toss a fine at you for walking past them too quickly.
Also, where are people complaining about red light cameras, so I can avoid taking my bike or car anywhere near there? It's probably a vocal minority, but I'd prefer to know and cover my ass. Just in case.
load more comments
(6 replies)
So what happens to images of your face when they're stored? Who tf really knows. We do know these oligarchs will literally try to exploit and profit from literally anything and everything they get access to.
Some countries that aren't treated like a state run corporation are actually letting citizens copyright their own faces for their protection.
probably to use your face in AI image generation of a person.
Not in Illinois it won't. The states attorney will have Amazon for lunch.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biometric_Information_Privacy_Act
In EU this is also illegal
And you're always seen as a "weirdo" or "crazy" or maybe even a thief if you want to opt out with a mask.
load more comments
(1 replies)
We need an anti-camera movement in this country
I don't really think cameras are all that bad, the bad thing is the centralization. If someone is willing to record local-only for their own security I see nothing wrong with that.
load more comments
(3 replies)
I went to my sister's house yesterday, she lived in a gated community and to visit i have to let them take a picture of my face and then scan the cam for access. i thought that's extremely obnoxious. This is far worst.
load more comments
(1 replies)
I’m very happy with my ubiquiti doorbell. It records to a local NVR on my network. No cloud for this guy!
load more comments
(7 replies)
Given any large database this is going to be a massive problem.
Did someone steal your package?
Do you want to know who did it?
Will you settle for knowing which of the 385 people in the country look like your villain? Some of them may even be close enough to be falsely accused!
load more comments
(2 replies)
view more: next ›