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.
this post was submitted on 22 Jan 2026
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the contracts/terms/etc don't even matter.. they can change them at any time, without prior notice. stop buying stuff, plain and simple.
Ditch your internet connected shit and boycott these companies
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
In case it wasn't obvious, you have to be pretty fucking stupid to install surveillance in your own house linked to tech corporations, with your own money, while generating a profit for them.
Is there some really good open source and local cameras that people are using? Because many people default to ring.
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.
Eufy is a sub-brand of Anker, for those unaware.
You can connect Eufy cameras to your NAS (RTSP) if you want to completely avoid sending the recording to the cloud, or only stored on the MicroSD card.
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.
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).
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.
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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.
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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.
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.
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Corporations and fascists: name a better duo
Peanut butter and jelly.
~~better~~
More evil
We can only hope these companies are treated as collaborators in the future.
How were collaborators treated the last time around though?
Volkswagen, Ford, UBS, and IBM are all doing pretty well.
Even the company that made the gas for hitlers gas chambers are still around
Zyklon-B, the pesticide used in the gas chambers, was still being manufactured, sold and used (for its intended pesticide usage) all the way up until the 2010s iirc.
and this was still under the Zyklon name.
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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!"
It would not surprise me if this inspired systematic vandalism of these devices. Not that I would ever advocate for such a thing.
While you’re at it, don’t buy from amazon
There was a time when I thought that was impossible... now I don't even have an account
I think my wife keeps one because according to her (and I believe this is true) there are things you just can't buy elsewhere anymore. So far, I have been fine not buying something if it's only on Amazon but I can see cases where that would be impossible.
Other than that, fuck Amazon right off
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It's crazy how fast this is going.
Oh look another smart technology I didn't adopt for the exact reason being talked about. You can't trust big tech to not collaborate with whoever it's the most profitable to collaborate with.
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Ah, the ol' fascist switcheroo
Have considered a plain old doorbel and a peep hole on the door?
Low tech, cheap, cheap to install, lasts a lifetime.
Heck, if safety is the concern, install a periscope. Yes, mirrora inside a tube, to get to see, from a distance, who is at the door.
You want footage? Photos?
Install a local camera. Like one of those that are setup by biologists to film animals in the wild. Triggered by motion sensing. Or talk with someone technically inclined and install a local system.
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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.
They deliberately disabled an option in order to coerce you into buying a new one? That is insane.
How did they disable color view if you didn't connect it to amazon?
I enjoy having cameras on my house to see what's going on in the neighborhood. It has come in handy at least once when my neighbor's truck was stolen in broad daylight.
They are ring cameras because two were installed already when I moved in. What should I switch to? I just really want motion alerts and proof when something bad happens.
Unifi Ubiquiti products are one of the best option for completely local data hosting and camera services with really good "ai" detections all run locally, but they aren't that cheap and you'll need to buy one of their Unifi protect capable routers to get started, which is gonna be like $300 by itself.
Edit: Looks like they have a standalone recorder with a 3.5 inch drive bay but it's still $200, and also most of their cameras are Ethernet. They do have a couple wireless options but not many.
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Free law enforcement access to my private security system? Seems like a bad idea.
I will never have a goddamn camera in my home. If I did it will HAVE to be an old school disconnected one that records to a DVR or some SSD HD. I have zero interest in having any unauthorized or unknown access to the interior of my home. This is a goddamn outrage, how is everyone not throwing their ring cameras out already?
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Ring is owned by Amazon, so it makes sense. You can't really trust any company fully, but Anker and Reolink are OK for now
Reolink
Any cameras that can operate entirely offline are good. Dahua and Hikvision are good too. Look for cameras with RTSP and ONVIF support. ONVIF is a standardized API for interacting with cameras and can handle things like pan/tilt/zoom, sending events from the camera to the NVR (eg motion detection), and a bunch of other things.
I use Blue Iris as my NVR, which is usually regarded as the best, but there's other good software too (like Frigate), and hardware solutions too.
Just follow best practices - keep them isolated on a separate VLAN with no internet access. If you want remote access to your NVR, use a VPN like Tailscale.
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stallmanwasright.jpg
Don't buy anything from Amazon.
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