I hope what really gets people to pay attention is how the FBI said they searched that news ladies' moms' ring camera footage even though she didn't have an active subscription.
this post was submitted on 12 Feb 2026
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It was a NEST camera from Google, which is only a meaningful distinction because it means they ALL do this shit.
The only ones that don't are ones that only send data to your data storage.
And even then, big question mark, as most Chinese produced camera modules have black box firmware. If it's on the Internet it's not yours.
My cameras have local network access only. Most people who are tech savvy enough to set up their own storage are also able to block Internet access for security cameras.
But another big concern for externally mounted cameras with microsd cards is the confiscation of those cards. They are are very easy to remove, often without tools and I don't believe for a minute that the fact that a warrant is required would make police actually get one before taking the card.
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And the NEST camera apparently has some sort of free tier that saves a short amount (the last few hours) of video by default, so NEST users shouldn't be surprised at all that their video feed is sent to the cloud as its one of the features of the subscription-less model.
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My wife and I recently moved to a home with ring cameras preinstalled, but no subscription of course. We can only access a live feed via the cloud service. I told my wife, I don’t think it matters whether we have a subscription or not… if they want to use the footage from our home cameras for any reason at all, it’s in their power to do so. They can save it, scan it, watch it, … they don’t even need to save the video, they can save results from a scan to get out the important details more efficiently.
My wife didn’t want to hear it. She said we aren’t paying them, so there’s nothing they can do. Then this news story dropped about Google Nest. I showed my wife. We no longer have the ring cameras.
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"They aren't just tracking lost dogs, they're tracking you and your neighbors,"
Uh, yeah. You didn't get the news about them sharing with ICE?
I think the majority of people don't even have tech conversations with their friends and coworkers, they just talk about sports or gambling or whatever else normal people do.
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They've backed off this and ended the partnership, claim Flock never got any footage, which I think is a total lie.
They'll re-partner when the heat is off, or just do it silently, Amazon shouldn't be trusted. Explain why to your friends and neighbors.
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If your stupid gadget needs a separate proprietary app that demands internet access, anticipate that all data is shared for all kinds of shady business.
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the problem with these fucking things is that you can't really opt out. even if you don't buy your own, some neighbours will happily buy and install the big brother to watch you from their porch and there is very little you can do about it.
same as you can't really escape the google, even if you don't use single one of their service, there is always the other part to any communication you are having...
Exactly. I never used Gemini or gave sensitive information/photos to major AI companies, but my family has, including photos of me.
I've never had a Facebook account. I've always hated when people posted pictures I was in and said who I was.
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just get a Chinese one like tapo so that the Chinese government can spy on you instead
Or hear me out,
Buy one that stores its data only on your local network and does not rely on corporate cloud or servers in any way or form.
This counts for all most all consumer home technology.
People should think about a NASS or Home servers like they do about owning a vehicle.
Build a server….in this economy? With these component prices?
I just installed Linux on my old laptop, added a 4Tb SSD and some HDDs connected with a docking bay and voilà, I have a server. Getting into the software side, now that's a bit harder but manageable.
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Yeah right. Next you'll be telling people to get off corporate owned social media and use something without an algorithm.
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I honestly didn't know what they were thinking with that commercial. Why would you proudly advertise that you've built a massive surveillance network, during one of the most-watched yearly televised events too for that matter? Did they seriously believe that there wouldn't be a major backlash? I mean I appreciate the blunt honesty in that commercial so I'll give them credit for that.
Tbh I think the people at the top still haven't caught up with the rapid changing sentiments among the population. My zero-tech-savy retired mother in-law was talking to me about Palantir the other day.
I honestly didn't know what they were thinking with that commercial. Why would you proudly advertise that you've built a massive surveillance network
Presumably because most end users are in deep with the "if you do nothing wrong, you have nothing to worry about" crowd ... and besides it can find a lost dog /s.
They brought these sorts of intrusive cameras in the first place so privacy was not top of mind, or even in 2nd or 3rd place.
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My guess is that since Ring has a history of well-known collaborations with police and ICE, they wanted to re-frame their evil surveillance network as a way to save a puppy. Instead, lots of uninformed normies suddenly realized what those cameras are capable of, and had a huge negative reaction given the state of things.
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My personal choice for security stuff is ubiquiti, but I'm sure someone here can find a super cheap doorbell camera that saves to an SD card and accomplishes the same thing.
I'm really glad people didn't just fall over for this ad, and connected the dots on what Amazon is doing
Reolink doorbell cameras don’t need to be connected to the cloud. They can record to an SD card or upload to an FTP server. You can connect to them with RTSP and run your own NVR if you want too.
Hmm yes, I understand some of these acronyms. /s
SD - Secure Digital (memory card you’d use for most things)
FTP - File Transfer Protocol (a way to upload files to a server)
RTSP - Real Time Streaming Protocol (a way to stream video)
NVR - Network Video Recorder (a device that records video)
I love lemmy. On the other site, you'd have 100 snarky and/or insulting replies. Here, there's a single reply that is straightforward and helpful.
I dunno, thanks for being a bright spot in otherwise somewhat bleak world.
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It is baffling that people hadn't clued in about this sooner
Don't worry, the majority of Ring owners still haven't.
People still love Chrome, even though tech reviewers told us exactly how creepy that browser is. That info has been publicly available since day one.
Same story with Facebook, but somehow that syphilis of the web is still alive. I have no idea what these people are thinking.
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Imagine spending millions of dollars on an ad that costs your company millions more in lost sales
And reduced usage by existing customers, reduced network effect, etc...
Maybe next time they’re thinking of spending $8M on a Super Bowl ad, they can save themselves some money and pay me half that amount. I’m perfectly happy to tell everyone how Ring cameras are a privacy nightmare and recommend Reolink instead.
"Amazon says the system is secured against hackers" ...You dumb evil pieces of shit, your employees and malicious government and law enforcement entities are a far greater risk than hackers. "We're spying on everything you do and giving Trump's constitution-ignoring lackeys access, but at least hackers aren't, probably"
My only regret is that I can't smash one because was never stupid enough to trust these things to begin with.
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I chose Reolink. AFAICT it's not leaking anything outside my network and it's fairly inexpensive. Not as cheap as the subsidized Ring brand but hey, at least I own them.
I've got a few Reolinks. I have them set to record to a local SD card and have blocked outside internet so that they're not phoning home.
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I put Google cameras on my house years ago out of convenience and this is it, I'm spending the money on a PoE system where my footage stays on my own hardware.
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my next door neighbor has a camera that seems to look like a ring... I mean I'm not gonna approach their door for no reason to check if it is a ring, but like... if it is a ring... then oh well, NSA is right by my door.
And I'm in a deep blue city btw... neighbor is a renter and is Black, so.... yeah... minority working class inadvertantly have a spy camera on their door
Front door is like right next to each other... like the camera can see me walking in the the path into my own house, it makes a sound when it detects movement and I heard the sound thing trigger even when walking only on my side of the yard
...And my family are immigrants...
so yay, our movements are probably in an ICE database
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the other day I heard someone make the point that Amazon is just a more successful Palinteer
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Because they all connect to the Kremlin via a single washing machine CPU.
For anyone who has a Ring camera, wants to get rid of it, but still wants a doorbell camera for security/convenience reasons, I'll point out that Ecobee has a fairly good rating on Mozilla's Privacy Not Included page where they review products for their privacy.
E2EE transmission of video from the camera to your phone when streaming, on-device processing of video feeds, auto-deletes any cloud footage when people uninstall the app (so non-technical users who think uninstalling an app deletes their data will actually get that benefit), only saves clips when actual motion is detected, first line of their privacy policy is "Your personal information and data belong to you", and their subscription is 100% optional.
Only real privacy concern is that if you choose to integrate yours with Alexa, it might get some data from that, but that's optional. The main downside is just that they only have a wired option for outdoor setups, but they do have an indoor one that doesn't require any kind of hookup directly into wires in your wall.
As always though, if you have the technical ability to set something up yourself that runs only on your local network, do it.
ten years too late
The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.
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