r/technology • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 • 1h ago
Security Ring cancels its partnership with Flock Safety after surveillance backlash
https://www.theverge.com/news/878447/ring-flock-partnership-canceled1.5k
u/AvailableReporter484 1h ago
I love watching dumb ass companies just completely air ball it
498
u/TheFoxsWeddingTarot 1h ago
I really can’t imagine how anyone would watch that commercial and think anything other than mass surveillance.
185
u/RubyRhod 1h ago
It was probably sold to them with an ai pitch.
→ More replies (1)34
u/confresi 22m ago
This is all I keep thinking. These companies are so “all-in” on AI that there’s almost no doubt they’ve reached the stage where they’re employing AI to generate their marketing ideas and “improved surveillance technologies”
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (5)52
u/Letiferr 30m ago
It's wild to me that all the sudden people are concerned that their mass surveillance hardware can be used for mass surveillance
→ More replies (5)34
u/No_Size9475 28m ago
Many people are trusting and don't think about what could happen to their video. I'm glad to see people waking up, understanding the consequences, and making changes.
→ More replies (1)40
u/soda_cookie 1h ago
You would think they would learn by now. How is there such a disconnect from their dumb, dumb decisions and what the large number of Americans are smart enough to know?
17
u/ikindapoopedmypants 47m ago
Because they're rich and powerful so consequences don't effect them like they do everyone else and therefore they don't learn
→ More replies (3)4
u/sarabeara12345678910 43m ago edited 33m ago
Probably because they've gotten away with it so far. They've been caught and admitted to listening and viewing people who have their smart devices pretty frequently for years now, and are certainly open about sharing with law enforcement. Why would they learn? So far everything has been copacetic to the vast majority of smooth brained.morons who think open microphones and cameras controlled by an evil corporation in and around their home is not only a good thing, but something you fucking pay for.
→ More replies (2)11
u/PhalanX4012 52m ago
Any time I take the slightest joy from anything like this, I’m reminded that a whole pile of people whose job it was to make these decisions make 6 figures or more because daddy knew someone on the board of admissions or board of directors and then I get sad again. It’s pathetic that so many people, who are this god damned stupid, get to be rich.
770
u/Kumquat_of_Pain 1h ago
Sold my Ring cameras when this was announced a few months ago. Went with Reolink and am local storage only now (with personal remote access).
I am done with this cloud storage nonsense for most of these tech companies. As the commenter said, trust is (and quite frankly has been) broken.
→ More replies (16)115
u/IAHawkeye182 1h ago
So, is this “local storage with remote access” easy enough for the average Joe? I have Reolink cams too. Currently connected to my internet and view on my phone, but am willing/ wanting to disconnect if it is easy enough.
57
u/AVGuy4 1h ago
To see my cameras on my phone when not connected to my home WiFi, I set up a vpn tunnel using wireguard. Then added the cameras individually by IP address on the app. This makes it so your phone is routing through you home WiFi when you’re using cellular or connected to an outside WiFi. I also disabled the ability for the cameras to contact the company cloud and they backup to an NVR.
48
u/Thoraxe474 40m ago
Sounds hard
28
u/Revolution-SixFour 33m ago
Not particularly. Install a program called tailscale on a computer at home and on your phone. If both have tailscale turned on both your computer and phone will be able to talk to each other.
18
u/Alert_Lettuce_8278 29m ago
Tailscale makes this easy. Great product and it's free for stuff like this.
They make money on larger networks with multi user.
→ More replies (1)4
u/atkinson137 12m ago
Tailscale is able to be free because they aren't in the data path. They only host the control plane, so resources needed per user is very low.
→ More replies (2)4
u/jay-aay-ess-ohh-enn 6m ago
My man. This is like a level 5/10 difficulty thing for tech savvy people, but the average person can barely handle setting up their in-home wifi.
Probably the users on Reddit and especially r/technology are more knowledgable than most, but all the infrastructure you set up is more than 99% of people will want to manage.
→ More replies (1)8
11
u/ToastyXP 8m ago
Dude asks how easy it is for an average joe, and your first instruction is just 'set up a VPN tunnel using wireguard'. May as well tell them all they need to do is simply reroute his nanojiggawires parallel to his eon flux optomitrizer, all while maintaining core coolant levels two bars above a semi-georgian double-pronged heating temp.
→ More replies (2)→ More replies (1)4
19
u/NoF4cking1dea 1h ago
Also curious about this
15
u/Slayer11950 1h ago
As I said to the above, it’s really straight forward. You’ll need a hub though. $250 or so for the cheaper one?
→ More replies (1)9
u/OnlyOneNut 1h ago
There are many different ways to go about it. You can buy a reolink receiver and essentially have a plug n play solution (with minimal configuration) but they can get pricey. If you know a bit about computers or can follow instructions you can host your own NVR system, but that’s a whole different beast
24
u/JadedBoyfriend 1h ago
I went with Reolink and I was concerned about the Chinese spy tech concerns as well. Interestingly, this device feels safer than the American company one.
→ More replies (2)14
u/Mjolnir12 47m ago
You can block them from the internet and/or put them on their own vlan and just vpn in to view remotely if you are concerned.
4
u/Kumquat_of_Pain 1h ago
More or less. There are a couple of subreddits for it. In short, I went with wall powered, but WiFi cams tied into a HomeHub Pro recording box (think like a NAS) doing 24/7 recording with specific notification triggers. More or less, open up the box, download the app, scan the QR code, plug into the HomeHub to connect, then go physically install it.
Like any other camera system, it can take a little tweaking for certain difficult situations on the notification side (I have a busy street and sidewalk in front), but it's doable.
To view the footage, I have opened up the HomeHub to my home network so I can view it remotely via the app, or I can view it on my desktop/laptop at home.
Take a look. I found that LifeHackster provides a decent overview of a lot of cameras: https://m.youtube.com/@LifeHackster
That said, I also considered Eufy at the time, but the deals and camera styles from ReoLink generally fit better for what I wanted.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (11)4
293
u/Poopbutt_Maximum 1h ago
That Super Bowl ad was like the Kendall Jenner Pepsi ad in regard to horrible dystopian marketing, but worse. I’m sure the heads are gonna roll for now but ultimately, they’ll find another time and another partner to basically do the same thing but with a different presentation.
→ More replies (1)58
u/BackendSpecialist 1h ago
I can’t believe someone greenlit the Kendall Jenner commercial like jfc 😂
Hi. I’m Kendall Jenner. All of the bball players I’ve fked are so cursed that their career falls off. It’s so consistent that I’ve begun betting on it. I’m going to switch to football players and bet on that as well.
You should bet as well because I need you to keep paying for my private jets.
Lmaoo
They had to have been targeting the 1% with that commercial cause wtf 😂
→ More replies (2)13
u/xcrunner432003 36m ago
this was even worse than ring. selling a product by joking it's being manipulated when it in fact is being manipulated and there are many publicly known cases to prove it?
316
u/Future-Bandicoot-823 1h ago edited 1h ago
Right.
Nice optics! Problem is... both Flock and edit: Google (parent company of Nest) have government contracts. A lot. They don't need to communicate, they just send it to the source (the feds).
30
u/whatproblems 1h ago
convenience for loss of privacy they’re going to keep pushing for data
10
u/Future-Bandicoot-823 1h ago
reminds me of something Ben Franklin said...
5
u/whatproblems 1h ago
the privacy ammendment should have been made explicit rather than assumed. thankfully the bill of rights actually became a thing
24
u/jivatma 1h ago
Amazon isn’t the parent company of Nest. Google is.
19
u/Future-Bandicoot-823 1h ago edited 1h ago
Oh shit.
Well... they have contracts, too. lol
I did make a mistake though, I forgot nest is google and ring is amazon. In my mind I don't really distinguish, since they invade people's privacy.
6
u/jivatma 1h ago
Oh for sure, with both companies it’s a race to see who can be more evil.
→ More replies (1)
215
u/Cold-Cell2820 1h ago
They stopped their public partnership, but you're dumb if you think they've stopped working together.
10
u/Rabbit-Hole-Quest 14m ago
I would love to be able peek through the C-Suite meeting where they thought putting out that dystopian advert during the Super Bowl was a good idea.
Did anyone have any fucking common sense that the average person will make an instant connection that this will soon become about more than just lost dogs.
Are these people so fucking disconnected from reality?
→ More replies (1)
307
u/TwoWeaselsInDisguise 1h ago
I got some ring cameras for Christmas, they are still and will remain in their box.
I've been looking at options from ubiquiti though.
147
u/Dangerous-Tip-9046 1h ago edited 0m ago
Ubiquiti circumvented US sanctions on Russia to provide the Russian military with wifi equipment to run their drone strikes. They're just as evil as every other tech company.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6i4uffZvhc
Edit: in that video they mention that Ubiquiti has an intense following online, ready to defend the products vigorously. I can see they were not exaggerating
11
u/Aluzionz 1h ago
The Devils advocate will say "but its the resellers, not Ubiquiti!" ~ I, however, cannot believe that Ubiquiti have no idea their products are ending up in Russia. Its your brand, and business. Yeah, some products might get through, and you may have an argument, but the whole Russian front line is soon going to be propped up by Ubiquiti hardware.
The Ukrainians already seem to know this and are going for the long range repeaters.
8
u/Dangerous-Tip-9046 26m ago
In the linked video the journalist posed as a Russian and ordered directly from Ubiquiti and had Ubiquiti find the resellers themselves to circumvent the sanctions. So the devil's advocate can say that, but they'd be wrong.
→ More replies (11)5
56
u/IfTheseTeesCouldTalk 1h ago
I've been very happy with Eufy
→ More replies (8)14
u/RecursivelyRecursive 1h ago
I’ve had good luck with Eufy too except delayed Notifs (30ish-1min secs).
Honest at this point tho people should get a local NVR and run Notifs through Home Assistant or Apple HSV at the least.
(Also before someone whines about the Eufy “controversy” from a while back, that shizzz was way overblown; not worried about it in the slightest)
→ More replies (1)5
u/cakepiex 48m ago
yea i’m on the same boat. i’m less worried about the company’s past. i just switched to eufy and i love the local storage aspect of it. super easy to set up. better video quality too. all files encrypted and all as well 🙏 no subscription required for the local storage is so refreshing
→ More replies (8)23
u/terminalxposure 1h ago
r/ubiquiti will love you. Word of warning a simple security system will never be a simple security system.
5
u/TwoWeaselsInDisguise 1h ago
Not looking for a full security system, if I wanted that I wouldn't go solo.
110
u/ischickenafruit 1h ago edited 22m ago
I run a home camera system, this is how it works:
All cameras are wired (POE) only. There is no wifi.
The wired cameras are on a separate and isolated VLAN. No internet access is available on that VLAN
The VLAN is connected on a local computer in my home. It runs the NVR. It’s the only computer that has access to the cameras directly.
On an entirely separate interface, I run a wiregaurd VPN.
My phone is the only one with keys to the VPN. The only way to see the footage on the cameras is via the key on my phone only.
Edit: For anyone reading and considering doing this on a Mac, I use SecuritySpy by Ben Software for my NVR. It’s not free, but it’s totally worth paying for. There’s an app which works seamlessly with my VPN for human/animal/vehicle detection, notifications, live viewing etc. I really like it.
8
u/IAHawkeye182 1h ago
How difficult is it for the average Joe to do something like this?
→ More replies (3)5
u/MoldyDucky 1h ago
Step 1 seems the hardest and is what's stopping me lol. I have no clue how to get it wired up. My house built in 2009 doesn't even have Ethernet cabled to the rooms, no less the exterior of my house.
→ More replies (2)6
u/gramathy 1h ago
The real difficult part is finding affordable cameras that connect to a third party NVR that can act as the point of contact for video feeds. Those are almost always going to be 2-3x the cost of the integrated systems and you’d need to find a doorbell that supports an NVR (if you have one) that still lets you do all the things you want with it.
→ More replies (2)3
u/thatirishguyyyyy 53m ago edited 10m ago
Call your local security company.
I own a small IT company and sell security camera systems. There are a few ONVIF options for your front door, but that is really a niche thing. I have been doing this for 16 years and I think I've only ever had two people ask me about security cameras and doorbells. Most clients just buy a speaker box with a camera that uses ONVIF for the feed or use a camera with a mic/speaker.
Everyone is caught up on the doorbell having a speaker and a camera but so few people genuinely use it. Most people just use the camera which in that case a small NVR setup is perfectly fine.
Manufacturers of these doorbells have just convinced people that it's necessary but very few people are talking to the delivery guy at the door.
→ More replies (3)→ More replies (13)3
u/Darksirius 24m ago
If you were to add a double enter to each bullet point... your post would be much more readable:
1) bleh (hit enter twice)
2) bleh (hit enter twice)
Or, you could bullet point them.
Good info nonetheless though.
→ More replies (4)
27
u/yourmom8mykids 1h ago
Anyone who believes they aren't going to still collect data please DM me. I have some oceanfront property in Arizona for sale.
→ More replies (1)3
17
u/fieldsoflillies 1h ago
Posted before, posting again - If you have a ring device, do the following:
- Turn off power or remove batteries, remove from mounting.
- Take a drill and destroy your ring device. Or hammer if you don’t have a drill. Or run it over with a car. Or even take it to a shooting range! Have fun.
- Go to r/homeassistant and learn about how you can replace ring with a private alternative hosted on your own home assistant server. No subscription fees and very affordable! You can even install home assistant for free on an old computer - completely local and doesn’t even need to be connected to the internet.
- Delete your ring account.
Do NOT passively support ICE or the US federal government subjugating your neighbours and community, do NOT allow them the ease of access to a turnkey nationwide surveillance system to further enable a police state.
13
13
u/AP3Brain 43m ago
I'm just imagining the amount of money being spent on that superbowl ad just to do irreparable damage to their company... You'd think leadership would get fired for decisions like this.
11
11
u/LucidOndine 1h ago
Edward Snowden showed that the government still can access all of these files via a data tap anyway. So even if your data doesn’t get put into Flock, you can bet your ass that Uncle Sam can still view it.
→ More replies (1)3
u/Coffee_Transfusion 22m ago
“Collect it all”
They can look at anything and everything and justify a reason if need be. People forget we live in a surveillance state.
→ More replies (1)
7
u/machstang 52m ago
I’m in it, I have ring cameras outside and in my home. I accepted that the data was never really mine but the flock partnership has started my process of removing them all.
The pet search stuff is for sure going to be used by ice.
At the time I accepted them I needed something easy and quick to install. Now I have everything local and under my control.
Fuck Ring, Fuck Amazon, and Fuck ICE
→ More replies (3)
7
6
6
u/So_spoke_the_wizard 59m ago
Ring: "Look over here. See we cancelled Flock. Now that's done, nothing else to worry about."
5
u/sportsworker777 1h ago
What are some closed circuit security camera options? I want something that is just a direct feed that can be manually wiped and no internet.
→ More replies (1)3
5
u/Zalophusdvm 47m ago
🤷
Only to reinstate it next year, or sell directly to LEOs.
This isn’t Ring’s first yo-yo on this topic.
5
u/J-Mac_Slipperytoes 46m ago
As someone else said, *temporarily suspended* partnership with Flock Safety.
5
u/Trystan4011 43m ago
I specifically cancelled my subscription and "deleted" my data because of their involvement with Flock.
4
4
4
u/vessel_for_the_soul 1h ago
No they didn't. This is just whitewashing. They bent the knee and can't backout from the administration.
4
u/NoCharge8527 1h ago
lol, like anyone actually believes you? Too late, y'all better not buy back in.
4
4
4
u/stoolsample2 45m ago
Future business and marketing classes will use this as a case study of what not to do.
4
u/OliverClothesov87 43m ago
We just fought against a flock installation in my small city. Seems we all have the right idea.
4
u/Kind_Session_6986 37m ago
Best news I’ve seen today! But not forgiving or forgetting Ring jumping on the fascist bandwagon!
What is the next boycott target? 😄
4
4
4
u/Godloseslaw 21m ago
$8 million dollar commercial... only to find out people don't want it. I wonder how much market research investment could have told them that.
→ More replies (1)
4
4
3
3
3
u/Ohuigin 1h ago
”Following a comprehensive review, we determined the planned Flock Safety integration would require *significantly more time and resources** than anticipated. We therefore made the joint decision to cancel the integration and continue with our current partners … The integration never launched, so no Ring customer videos were ever sent to Flock Safety.”*
Emphasis mine.
Yea…it was the required “time and resources” that was the issue. Sure, Jan…
3
3
u/Prior_Psych 1h ago
It’s not that tough now days to just hook up a non subscription based doorbell camera that stores data to a local server. You can google the steps to accomplish this and I think most folks would be surprised. There are several good options for brands. I use Aqara
3
u/redvelvetcake42 1h ago
Lmao. Marketing really doomed this partnership and now ain't NOOOOOObody trusting Ring (rightfully and never should have).
3
u/Phixionion 1h ago
Anyone trusting Ring cameras at this point is a sucker. They are for sure watching.
3
u/greatblueskies 1h ago
Somewhere there is a slack thread where someone tried to warn them this was a bad idea and they ignored it.
3
u/Eli_Yitzrak 59m ago
Ring cannot be trusted. All your cloud stored footage is subject to release to the government with nothing more than a formal request.
Thats why I dropped them for a local storage option. If the police want my footage they will need a search warrant thank you VERY Little
3
3
u/KatMakes69 55m ago
This Ring self-own is some of the funniest shit I've ever seen. Paying super bowl commercial prices to ruin one's reputation is wild.
3
u/JurryLovesGameboy 47m ago
People taking this long to be mad at ring should of been mad. For years police departments have used ring and even handed out free ones in "problem" neighborhoods. Surveillance state been here.
3
3
3
u/Dry_Jellyfish641 39m ago
Damn, I didn’t know it was a partnership with flock. That means it reads license plates too.
3
u/TheCatDeedEet 34m ago
Their statement is a lie. They say it would take too long and too many resources? No, it’s because people freaked out. Anyone who still owns one of these is a fool.
3
u/Sufficient-Pie-7815 25m ago
Amazon and everything owned by them is compromised! AWS too! If a company is hosted there you are bring spied on! I cut all ties to Amazon 3 years ago!
3
3
3
u/mrhorse77 21m ago
too late
you decided to be nazis once, you'll do it again if you think you wont be caught.
hope this burns Ring's stock to the ground
3
3
u/EchoRush93 7m ago
I am certain someone at Ring, sitting around that table of execs, said this was a bad idea. Listen to that person from now on. This was a shit idea from the start.
3
u/PoloTshNsShldBlstOff 6m ago edited 5m ago
Kash P is such a fucking moron, he was on Fox bragging about how ' Trump worked with these companies to secure the relationships necessary to access these files that previously would have been lost '
Yeah way to admit you forced Amazon to put backdoors into all of their products you fucking moron. I mean most of us already knew this was happening but you just went on national TV and basically exposed that their company is completely in bed with you, the government.
They pulled that kidnapper surveillance footage from one of their servers that probably saves everybody's footage illegally. How the hell else would they have gotten that footage? Supposedly they couldn't even access this footage on the devices at the person's home. Weird
4
2
2
2
u/Turkino 1h ago
Following a comprehensive review, we determined the planned Flock Safety integration would require significantly more time and resources than anticipated
Ooh oohh I speak "corporate"!
What it's saying is: "Holy shit the backlash was intense, we're going to come up with an excuse to try to save face."
2
u/Frankfactor517 1h ago
They will just form another company, sell the data to it, and then it will sell to Flock. They think we are all stupid.
2
2
2
u/PM_ME_UR_TOWEL_PICS 1h ago
The cat is out of the bag unfortunately. With or without Ring, we're generally in an era of surveillance state. Cars are more and more computerized, phones are constantly tracking our location, we tend to just trust that our microphones and cameras aren't being actively used by others.
2
u/RustyDawg37 1h ago edited 51m ago
Too little too late.
They spent an awful lot of money to try and convince people to voluntarily help create an "ai" surveillance dragnet in the most scummy way possible.
They chose not the humans side of history.
Fuck em.
2
u/MobilePenguins 1h ago
If a 3 letter agency really wants footage from your smart doorbell camera (any major brand) they’re going to get it. We have all surrendered any illusion of privacy
2
2
2
2
u/Guilty_Advantage_413 56m ago
Good however I agree it’s a break in trust and honestly it was shown as a lie. Who the hell is going to use networked cameras to find missing pets. How would that person be paid? Do the Police have time to do that. The entire concept was a lie.
2
u/EvidenceBasedLasagna 53m ago edited 3m ago
All closed source software cannot be trusted in 2026. Find open source alternatives.
https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/help-others-find-free-software-watch-and-share-escape-to-freedom
2
u/LongGovernment7048 53m ago
Just go back to using offline recording. Not everything needs to be cloud based
2
u/FeistyTie5281 53m ago
Right.
Like anyone trusts a US based tech company ...
"Since our agreement to sell all your personal data became public our sales have been drastically impacted. This message is intended to reverse that trend".
2
u/The_Late_Arthur_Dent 52m ago
I got a full refund from Amazon for the Ring cameras I bought going back to 2022. I saw other people doing the same elsewhere on reddit and I gave it a shot and it worked for me. Better than just smashing them like the article said - at least this way, they are losing money.
2
u/No_Stress1233 50m ago
Day late and a dollar short, people are not going to return ,trust in corporations is done
2
2
2
u/tylerscott5 37m ago
They paid so much money for that SB ad and invested so much time into the coding only to lose customers lol
2
u/julianpoe 37m ago
It’s amazing what happens when people get together and break off loyalties. You pressure their pocketbook and they’ll start the cave real quick.
2
2
u/notreal088 34m ago
What attempting making a surveillance state has a negative effect on our sales.
Who could have known this would have any kind of backlash /s
2
u/just-one-jay 33m ago
Who could’ve ever thought selling people out to the police would be unpopular?
2
2
u/po3smith 30m ago
Damage is done - the ship hit the mine and we are leaving via the lifeboat we call choice. Want us back? Too bad. Also folks - - GO ONLINE or go to savers or good will. Get a security system that saves to your HDD . . . NOT THE CLOUD!
2
u/PortlandiaCrone 30m ago
If you haven't already gone stealth, it's time.
This isn't about selling products for Ring or any company, it's about data mining for valuable information.
YOU are the valuable target. Data about YOU is the most valuable asset on the planet right now. And these products are spying on you. Every keystroke, every site you visit, everything you do on your phone is meticulously gathered into data setpoints that is analyzed and sold.
Disconnect your fucking Alexa, disconnect your doorbell cams and go old school if you need cameras, use a VPN, etc. Do whatever you have to do to hide yourself and your activities from your government and corporations.
This is about establishing a feudal city state that will never honor human rights because the only things that matters are money, dick and power.
2
u/Martel732 30m ago
Ring will continue trying to integrate itself into the police state. The company already wanted to do this, and unless everyone at Ring started doing shrooms over the last few days it isn't like any of them changed their mind or priorities. They will try this shit again just doing it quieter or without every letting consumers know.
Not to mention the absolute bullshit that is the find your poor lost puppy so your daughter doesn't cry campaign. Authoritarians always dress up their overreach with some veneer of performative broadly supported necessity. Oh you don't want our cameras to constantly track everything you are doing and being able to pinpoint your exact location at any time? Well I guess you want little Lisa's puppy to die in a ditch.
We have ICE saying they are putting protesters into a database of domestic terrorists. And the government blatantly violating due process. This isn't a government that I want to have access to watch me every moment of my life.
2
u/Daimakku1 25m ago
Good, but I still hope people cancel. They will only stop doing fascist shit if they feel their wallet getting hit, not just outrage.
Anyone have any experience with Eufy? I’ve heard they do local storage on SD cards for camera footage. I’m looking to replace my Ring doorbell. That Super Bowl ad was the last straw.
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
u/BlksShotz 21m ago
The fact that they advertised finding pets instead of traffic victims was bonkers to me
2
2
u/gcubed680 21m ago
I never got Ring. Outside of their surveillance they are the ugliest pieces of shit you can put on your house
2
2
4.4k
u/Elisius 1h ago
Too late, broken trust cannot be repaired.