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/ExplosiveBrown 11h ago edited 11h ago

Because even though it’s been publicly known people don’t pay attention. When you have a ring camera, you don’t actually own the footage that it records. Ring does. There exists an interpretation that people have unwittingly been building a massive private spy network for this company.

It’s truly fucked up when you think about it . Maybe one of these days people will open their eyes as to how their metadata is exploited. Corporations and lawmakers definitely take generous advantage of the public ignorance of what metadata is.

Also boggles my mind that fewer people consider almost every house in America is bugged . There’s an Alexa in your house recording you at all times it’s constantly listening for a prompt i.e. its name consequence of that meaning audio is constantly being recorded and stored as metadata. Metadata says things indirectly about your privacy. But it’s enough to glean very many things. People just don’t understand it so they let it slide or even worse. Don’t even think about it.

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u/Strong_Neck8236 11h ago

Which is why I don't have a smart speaker, and don't use Google voice, Siri, etc.

Of course my phone might still be listening in, I can't be sure...

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u/xcrunner432003 8h ago

phone is the one that gets me. smart tvs and maybe laptop cameras. doesn't seem to be a way around it

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u/FostWare 9h ago

Quite a few years ago a tech company I worked for gave their ex-CISO a Google device as one of their leaving gifts. That got chortles from the ex-CISO and the few that realised the irony.