Home “security” cameras cause far, far more angst and grief than they do benefit.
“Hey, mister policeman, here’s a video of a guy stealing my truck.”
“Yep, that’s a guy stealing your truck, alright.”
“…”
“Should’a put it in your garage.”
“My garage is full of crap I bought on Amazon. Some of it, I haven’t even opened. Also, the truck didn’t fit in the garage after I had it lifted.”
“The report is filed, I’ll let you know if we find anything.”
“You’re not going to find anything, are you?”
“We’re not even going to look.”
One-third of Nextdoor is lost pets. One-third is people selling crap they bought at Goodwill. And, the last third is people asking about the “suspicious” (non-white) man who walked down the sidewalk past their house at 5AM.
The only reason to contact the police if something gets stolen is so that you can show the report to your insurance company.
Is there some really good open source and local cameras that people are using? Because many people default to ring.
I use ReoLink cameras blocked from the Internet. Locally, the app is p2p and works fine. For remote viewing, I have the rtmp proxied through my home server.
You can just use analog security cameras and a DVR of your choosing. Don’t let the word analog fool you, the cameras are available in up to 4K resolution. Since the video is recorded to the DVR and not some random company’s server it is safe. It requires a little more setup and know-how but it is by no means difficult. Check the surveillance section on B&H’s website. There are tons of options.
Idk about FOSS but unifi is all locally hosted!
I am looking at using Eufy, no subscription. Unsure of potential of it joining the darkside.
Edit: China-owned, so it’s a pick-your-poison kind of deal.
Not sure if it is open source, but I switched to ReoLink a while back and have been very happy with it. Good Home Assistant integration, no subscription, and everything can be local (store video clips to an onboard SD Card).
This really highlights how important it is for people to understand what they’re opting into with smart devices. Transparency and informed choice matter more than ever.
Tl;dr surveillance equipment working perfectly, used for dystopian surveillance. Major shocker.
Even better, getting the general public to pay to install and power them
It would not surprise me if this inspired systematic vandalism of these devices. Not that I would ever advocate for such a thing.
It’s crazy how fast this is going.
Corporations and fascists: name a better duo
Peanut butter and jelly.
betterMore evil
Can we all agree to print out flyers of this to share around with neighbors and our communities? People ARE under educated. It starts with us educating because the oligarchs wont
I doubt that anyone who has a ring camera, alexa and anything like that will care. Maybe people who think about getting one will, but a random flyer?
I care. I have Ring because it was the fastest way to get cameras on my property after trouble with neighbors. I found out how liberal they are with user data and handing it over to law enforcement but I couldn’t justify the expense in upgrading. For me this isn’t a bridge too far in a moral sense but more like a powerful reminder I’ve been lax in my responsibility. I’m pricing out some Reolink cameras I can host locally at home and put on a private subnet I can just VPN into. I’ll have to buy the kit piecemeal because I don’t have a lot of money to toss around but I am firmly committed to getting off Ring cameras in light of this news.
this is great news for my leftist in-laws who decided to get ring cameras out of the convenience they offered.
I did warn them that this would happen, but like most people, “that would never happen!”
Free law enforcement access to my private security system? Seems like a bad idea.
Time to put a goatse picture in front of the camera!
Thank God I still haven’t looked that up.
And make it repeat you’re the man now, dog!
It’s just out in the open, you’re too stupid if you think they didn’t do it already.
I bought a ring camera in 2018 and I haven’t replaced it. They disabled color view to try to get me to to buy a new one. Thankfully I haven’t connected it to Amazon or anything yet. I immediately disconnected it after reading this, fucking Amazon.
How did they disable color view if you didn’t connect it to amazon?
They deliberately disabled an option in order to coerce you into buying a new one? That is insane.
Where are the hactivists?! Are they all too well employed?
Be the change you want to see in the world
Yeah, I feel my hypocrisy. I am trying to understand more, but my mind always ends up melting. Individuals I’ve met that maybe could do what I want done are a different breed from me. I am pushing myself to understand more, but I am pushing uphill and it will take years before I can achieve what probably so many all around the world could do now. While I sharpen myself, I ask: who were those in the V masks of years past?
Oh noooo, that thing we warned people about when it came out is being misused in exactly the way we warned people it would be misused.
Oh nooooo.
I’m tired grandpa. Too damn many stupid people in this world.
yeah, 100%, and there is no satisfaction in being proven right for this shit, the vindication is absolutely hollow. It sucks for everyone.
world
The US. The rest of us don’t have an ICE problem nor an obsession with this kind of shit.
That is simply not true.
Here in the EU we have chat control trying to be forced through every year for mass surveillance and targeting like Spain targeting catalan independence movements.
Palantir is starting to expand into the EU and american fash-tech companies have been lobbying hard and giving money to fascist parties across the EU. Musk gave unprescidented money of AfD fascists, for example.
UK has been getting more and more fascist for years, they have had mass surveillance for years and have been arresting people for simply attending zoom meetings supporting a country being killed off en-masse. Palantir literally just landed a £240 million deal with the UK government
We don’t have an ICE problem yet. Neither did america 10 years ago. It is being pushed HARD here to create an ICE problem.
feels like rest of the world, including Europe, is like “can we slip in a couple of ours while Trump is doing all these insane bat shit crazy stuff and distracting people”
Every time I thought the US was stupid for doing a thing, the rest of the world followed with the same bullshit a few years later. Some sooner, some later. The US is not more stupid, they’re trendsetters.
