Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Blink has been acquired by Amazon

blinkforhome.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 92 posts

Re: Blink has been acquired by Amazon

#41

Post by wefwej2388 »

c_r_w wrote: post #21
neekb wrote: post #18

Amazon has their own delivery service, bought wholefoods, and now bought blink. Blink has a doorbell offering plus the camera's that you already know of. It's not a stretch to have groceries delivered all the way to your fridge and put blink cameras all over the house to make sure the delivery guy walks back out when he's done.

Amazon is definitely pushing the boundaries of what amount of privacy people are willing to exchange for convenience. I was shocked that so many people I knew bought Echos... wiring your entire house for video doesn't seem that much crazier.

Home security with the possibility of secret 24/7 video/audio monitoring by a corporation is not an Amazon invention.

It's more that it hasn't been as affordable to the masses.

The occasional package being nicked isn't sufficient for me to give my home a James Bond/MI6 style upgrade.

Unless you're living in the wrong part of the world, you're paying for anxiety medication, not security (a package in the open but monitored by camera can still be nicked, so it's not secure).

Personally, I prefer a bong rip and shot of scotch for anxiety.

Re: Blink has been acquired by Amazon

#42

Post by flamedoge »

c_r_w wrote: post #21
neekb wrote: post #18

Amazon has their own delivery service, bought wholefoods, and now bought blink. Blink has a doorbell offering plus the camera's that you already know of. It's not a stretch to have groceries delivered all the way to your fridge and put blink cameras all over the house to make sure the delivery guy walks back out when he's done.

Amazon is definitely pushing the boundaries of what amount of privacy people are willing to exchange for convenience. I was shocked that so many people I knew bought Echos... wiring your entire house for video doesn't seem that much crazier.

if privacy was such a concern which i believe it is, why dont people look into locker form for delivery?

Re: Blink has been acquired by Amazon

#43

Post by hawktheslayer »

neekb wrote: post #30
c_r_w wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amazon is definitely pushing the boundaries of what amount of privacy people are willing to exchange for convenience. I was shocked that so many people I knew bought Echos... wiring your entire house for video doesn't seem that much crazier.

The thing that bothers me most is.. Don't people want cookies any more??? When I go grocery shopping, I get a cookie from the bakery. I need to look at them all and pick out the best one. That's how it works! Although I'm sure Amazon will have a solution for that soon enough as well!

Amazon has already been using machine learning to separate fresh vs. moldy strawberries; I'm sure AI will be able to identify the freshest cookies better than humans in the near future.

Re: Blink has been acquired by Amazon

#44

Post by callalex »

matte_black wrote: post #34
neekb wrote: post #18

Amazon has their own delivery service, bought wholefoods, and now bought blink. Blink has a doorbell offering plus the camera's that you already know of. It's not a stretch to have groceries delivered all the way to your fridge and put blink cameras all over the house to make sure the delivery guy walks back out when he's done.

I feel this would be more practical if houses in the future are designed so that there could be a separate entry into a special room of the house designed for service workers to drop off packages and groceries, without touching main living areas.

That’s called a locker.

Re: Blink has been acquired by Amazon

#45

Post by reaperducer »

matte_black wrote: post #34
neekb wrote: post #18

Amazon has their own delivery service, bought wholefoods, and now bought blink. Blink has a doorbell offering plus the camera's that you already know of. It's not a stretch to have groceries delivered all the way to your fridge and put blink cameras all over the house to make sure the delivery guy walks back out when he's done.

I feel this would be more practical if houses in the future are designed so that there could be a separate entry into a special room of the house designed for service workers to drop off packages and groceries, without touching main living areas.

Houses of the past had this. Lots of old colonial homes have a small room with has doors to the outside and the inside that both lock.

Sometimes they're called "mud rooms" or "butler's pantries" or other things, depending on the age of the house, and the social status of the person it was built for.

That's why sometimes in old movies you'll hear the phrase "Tradesmen enter on the side."

Re: Blink has been acquired by Amazon

#47

Post by Mister_Snuggles »

kfriede wrote: post #29
Mister_Snuggles wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wiring your house for video is not crazy at all. Wiring it for video where you have to rely on the security of cloud provider (especially a free one) is what's crazy.

Wiring the interior of your house to a network connected device, whether cloud or not, sounds crazy to me anyways. I realize 95% of the "hacked" webstreams are due to people not changing the default password and forwarding the port, but there are enough security vulnerabilities aside from that where I wouldn't feel comfortable with them installed indoors.

The security on most IoT products is terribly lacking. I don't blame you for being wary of them.

I have a bunch of cheap WiFi cameras, but they don't require a cloud service to operate so I can segregate them all onto a WLAN/VLAN that doesn't have access to the internet. This is a reasonable measure to secure these devices, but for cloud-required cameras (like the Blink appears to be) this isn't an option at all.

Of course, by taking the vendor's cloud service out of the equation I either have greatly reduced functionality or I have to spend time (and money) to build out that functionality locally. The route I've gone has Zoneminder doing motion detection, recording, and storage, with an IPSec VPN to provide remote access.

It's not perfectly secure (nothing is), but it's a lot better than the default.

Re: Blink has been acquired by Amazon

#49

Post by bambax »

Mister_Snuggles wrote: post #26
c_r_w wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amazon is definitely pushing the boundaries of what amount of privacy people are willing to exchange for convenience. I was shocked that so many people I knew bought Echos... wiring your entire house for video doesn't seem that much crazier.

Wiring your house for video is not crazy at all. Wiring it for video where you have to rely on the security of cloud provider (especially a free one) is what's crazy.

> Wiring your house for video is not crazy at all.

What's the benefit of wiring your house for video?

And who gets to watch what feed?

At what age should parents stop watching their kids' bedroom?

If there are no cameras in the bedrooms / restrooms that leaves only the corridors and maybe the main living room? But a lot of things can happen in a living room that should not be watchable by anyone who has admin access.

Re: Blink has been acquired by Amazon

#50

Post by bambax »

reaperducer wrote: post #45
matte_black wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel this would be more practical if houses in the future are designed so that there could be a separate entry into a special room of the house designed for service workers to drop off packages and groceries, without touching main living areas.

Houses of the past had this. Lots of old colonial homes have a small room with has doors to the outside and the inside that both lock. Sometimes they're called "mud rooms" or "butler's pantries" or other things, depending on the age of the house, and the social status of the person it was built for. That's why sometimes in old movies you'll hear the phrase "Tradesmen enter on the side."

Monasteries had gatehouses, which were an intermediary room between the outside world and the fenced inside.

Also, submarines.

Post reply on HN