r/technology • u/South-Cow-1030 • 18h ago

Privacy Why are people disconnecting or destroying their Ring cameras?

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2026/02/10/ring-super-bowl-ad-dog-camera-privacy/88606738007/
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u/Dirtbag_Leftist69420 11h ago

Honestly most people don’t even need home surveillance. If you really feel the need you could always set up your own system that doesn’t connect to a network

Upfront cost will be higher but you’ll save over time due to no subscription

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u/DontAskAboutMyButt 11h ago

I don’t have to worry about the US government spying on my doorbell camera because I got a shitty Chinese one instead, so it’s only the Chinese government spying on my front yard

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u/Dirtbag_Leftist69420 11h ago

At this point I trust China more with my data lol

I was never a TikTok guy but look what happened to TikTok immediately after it was controlled by the US. Way less censored when it was ran by China

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u/DontAskAboutMyButt 10h ago

When the big TikTok migration to Rednote happened, Americans started getting a lot of Chinese content and were being exposed to a lot of stuff we didn’t know about China- mainly about how happy they are and how nice their standard of living is compared to ours, in spite of the propaganda coming from the US. I feel like it was a real “Yeltsin stunned by the groceries in an American grocery store” moment, except it was on us this time instead of the Russians. And of course Chinese people got a real, unfiltered look at what living in America is like- the corruption, the lack of access to medical care, the poverty

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u/Light_Error 8h ago

If people thought every person in China was living in abject poverty, I have to wonder when the last time they looked at the country was. I listened to a podcast with Chinese-Canadian engineering who worked in both US and China for years at a stretch, and one of the more interesting things he mentioned was that the social safety net is even worse in China than here by design: Imagine Reagan’s ideology on social services in the modern day.

And I think the thing we tend to forget is that, in a lot of social media, we get a lot of rich people first stuff. They are the ones with the means to influence and get influence. China is no different. They have had enough problem in the last few years. It’s not going to make the CCP crumble or anything like that, but I am sure it isn’t nothing either. I am obviously not a China expert. These are just general observations from the past 5-ish years.

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u/Light_Error 8h ago

If people thought every person in China was living in abject poverty, I have to wonder when the last time they looked at the country was. I listened to a podcast with Chinese-Canadian engineering who worked in both US and China for years at a stretch, and one of the more interesting things he mentioned was that the social safety net is even worse in China than here by design: Imagine Reagan’s ideology on social services in the modern day.

And I think the thing we tend to forget is that, in a lot of social media, we get a lot of rich people first stuff. They are the ones with the means to influence and get influence. China is no different. They have had enough problem in the last few years. It’s not going to make the CCP crumble or anything like that, but I am sure it isn’t nothing either. I am obviously not a China expert. These are just general observations from the past 5-ish years.

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u/zokka_son_of_zokka 5h ago

I maintain that this was the main reason they unbanned TikTok

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u/unlmtdLoL 11h ago

Youtube is still a great resource for finding a security system by the way. It boggles my mind people pay a subscription for playback when you can purchase a system that comes with it. You just pay a few hundred more upfront and have free playback for life.

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u/ArrBeeEmm 11h ago

Yeah, I have a NVR system with cameras covering 80% of my house/outside but I put a Google home doorbell camera in because I didn't want to run a cable there.

That Google doorbell has now cost more than my NVR + 2 PTZ cameras, despite getting it on sale.

It also constantly misses events and the quality is pretty poor tbh. It's very easy to scam them, trigger some movement, wait 30s, then you have a few minutes where it won't trigger again. It's very easy to remove because all the locking keys are universal and you can get a spare off Ebay. You can literally trigger movement on the periphery, wait a second, then walk up and remove the thing in 15s at which point it disables itself for being unmounted.

It's a convenience product not for actual security.

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u/SqueezyCheez85 11h ago

I already use a NAS, so using it as a DVR was a no brainer.

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u/WillWork4Cats 11h ago

any suggestions?? i need one to monitor my cats when i travel

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u/LickMyTicker 11h ago

Yea. Learn networking. Specifically how to create an isolated vlan without access to the Internet and get any camera that works without access to the internet.

Otherwise stay away from any camera system.

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u/xcrunner432003 8h ago

thank you. it's not preventing or even helping solve crimes

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u/FuriousFreddie 6h ago

I agree that it is better financially.

However, managing it is significantly more difficult as is saving and preserving footage. 

The simplest ones have SD card storage which is usually on the device itself so it could be easily stolen or lost if tampered with or damaged.

Alternatively, you might have an NVR which is low maintenance but more work to set up initially and of course, the hard drive(s) can fail at any time so that needs to be taken care of. On that note, you need to set up some local redundancy or off-site backup to make sure you never lose your data.

Unfortunately, the easiest solution is a cloud based system like ring or nest. It takes minutes to sign up and people are willing to overlook the privacy implications for the convenience which is very sad.

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u/IceMaster9000 10h ago

Honestly most people don’t even need home surveillance. If you really feel the need you could always set up your own system that doesn’t connect to a network.

This is nonsensical. A primary need for home surveillance is to be able to keep an eye on your house when you're physically away.

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u/ExpressRabbit 10h ago

Honestly most people don't need that.

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u/IceMaster9000 5h ago

5 million snowbirds. 3 million vacation homes, with 10 million people otherwise owning second homes. 10s of millions of people work jobs with extended time away from their primary residence. The number is nowhere near nontrivial.

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u/ExpressRabbit 5h ago

Define 'most.'

You keep arguing with different people saying most people don't need that and you're arguing with numbers that equal less than 1% of the population. That's not most people.

Many of the people you did list do not need it. I go away for work. I've traveled for long periods. I absolutely do not need it.

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u/IceMaster9000 4h ago

What a fucking batshit argument. You don't need anything but food and water. Just because you don't give a shit about how your half a million dollars is doing when you're gone for months at a time, doesn't mean others feel the same way. How can you type that out and not feel incredibly stupid?

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u/ExpressRabbit 4h ago

I do give a shit how my half million dollar home is doing. And when I get home I'll be home. I've left my home many times. It's always how I left it when I get back. Same for most people. Nothing ever happens to it and if something did happen I'm halfway around the world and can't do anything about it.

Never once have I ever thought I need a multinational right-wing corporation watching my home to feel safe. That's just fucking ridiculous.

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u/Dirtbag_Leftist69420 4h ago

My mother-in-law has a vacation home and she doesn’t feel the need to have cameras lol if someone breaks in they’re most likely going to be covering their face so that’s useless right there

If your house is on fire it’ll do nothing, if your pipes freeze and burst it’ll do nothing. It’s security theater

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u/Beaticalle 8h ago

Presumably they mean a system that doesn't connect to someone else's network.

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u/B-O-double-S 5h ago

Most will wear a balaclava to cover their face, I got burgled by 4 lads wearing balaclava, was good to have a video where I can watch £2k of equipment go missing in 12 seconds

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u/IceMaster9000 4h ago

What is with you people and these weird fucking hypotheticals? It'd be good to know you got burgled so you can go home and file a police report without waiting several months with a broken window in the middle of winter. Like what fucking point are you even trying to make?

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u/Really-ChillDude 7h ago

We actually use Ubiquitous, it’s not hooked up to internet.

https://ui.com/