Ring founder Jamie Siminoff is back at the helm of the surveillance doorbell company, and with him is the surveillance-first-privacy-last approach that made Ring one of the most maligned tech devices. Not only is the company reintroducing new versions of old features which would allow police to...

Ring founder Jamie Siminoff is back at the helm of the surveillance doorbell company, and with him is the surveillance-first-privacy-last approach that made Ring one of the most maligned tech devices. Not only is the company reintroducing new versions of old features which would allow police to request footage directly from Ring users, it is also introducing a new feature that would allow police to request live-st

  • skisnow@lemmy.caEnglish
    4·
    3 months ago

    I bought a cheap Chinese security camera for a fraction of the cost of a Ring and signed up for their cloud storage system. I’m more comfortable with the Chinese government being able to access footage of my backyard, than the current US administration.

      • skisnow@lemmy.caEnglish
        01·
        3 months ago

        eh, you might have a spare day to source a completely uncompromised camera and find someone in a trusted neutral country who runs an unproblematic hosting service and configure a system to do offsite storage in a secure way, but I’ve got other stuff going on. If you can source me a reasonable alternative I’m happy to use it when it comes time to renew my subscription.

        • Dyskolos@lemmy.zipEnglish
          1·
          3 months ago

          Besides that I would trust a Chinese cloud way more than a murican one (I’m non-US), this really is a lazy excuse. This apathy paired with ignorance or being technically challenged is the main reason dystopian shit like ring even sells at all. Or all those silly “smart” assistants like Alexa.

          Phrases like “renewing my subscription” in context of a fucking doorbell itself sounds so absurd to me.

          E.g. A raspberry (or the likes) with some run-of-the-mill ip-cam, some wifi-doorbell and AgentDVR would do the same for even less moneyz. And just for you, not the whole world. Wouldn’t take more than some hours of setup.

        • Maestro@fedia.io
          1·
          3 months ago

          Just buy a Reolink Doorbell. Pop in an SD card. Put in on your wifi or LAN and access it with your browser. You’re done. It’s all local. There’s an optional app that does need an external server, but that’s optional and there is no subscription.

          • OhNoMoreLemmy@lemmy.mlEnglish
            01·
            3 months ago

            Ok, but one of the most important use cases is non-local access.

            If I’m at home I can just go to the door.

    • chaosCruiser@futurology.todayEnglish
      3·
      3 months ago

      Not too long ago, that statement would have sounded controversial or even crazy. Nowadays though, I’m shocked how much sense it makes to me. Never thought that I would agree with something like that.

      • Avid Amoeba@lemmy.caEnglish
        1·
        3 months ago

        Yeah. It’s crazy. I would choose neither because I can DIY something secure but for non-technical folks in North America today, the Chinese gov’t having your video is safer than a private US corporation. I didn’t imagone I could make this judgement back in 2022.