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Before buying Ring, WEMO or Roku, consider privacy issues

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21–30 of 115 posts

Re: Before buying Ring, WEMO or Roku, consider privacy issues

#22

The further down this future we travel, the less I want to do with technology. I am becoming a Luddite. None of this crappy IOT stuff will enter my home.

My roommate has a phone. I didn't think much of it until he said "Ok Google" while cooking.

What am I supposed to say here? I don't like microphones being always on either, but it's his phone and his home too. I can't escape the millions of cameras around the city or the constant internet trackers. We should have had regulated this stuff decades ago.

Re: Before buying Ring, WEMO or Roku, consider privacy issues

#23

The further down this future we travel, the less I want to do with technology. I am becoming a Luddite. None of this crappy IOT stuff will enter my home.

But would you still use strictly on-premises devices and/or uploading to the cloud with local (managed by you) encryption?

Re: Before buying Ring, WEMO or Roku, consider privacy issues

#25

The further down this future we travel, the less I want to do with technology. I am becoming a Luddite. None of this crappy IOT stuff will enter my home.

My roommate has a phone. I didn't think much of it until he said "Ok Google" while cooking. What am I supposed to say here? I don't like microphones being always on either, but it's his phone and his home too. I can't escape the millions of cameras around the city or the constant internet trackers. We should have had regulated this stuff decades ago.

i mean, is it any different than having any other conversation that potentially involves interpersonal conflict?

if it's important to you and you're willing to burn social capital on it, just politely ask that he not use it when [your boundaries here].

if you come to an impasse, then there's not much to be done other than part ways. i'd imagine this is similar to any other incompatible roommate situations, e.g. someone whose recent significant other recently started coming over and has annoying habits.

Re: Before buying Ring, WEMO or Roku, consider privacy issues

#26
post #20
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you route power to those Wyze cams though? And just so you know, they send their video to the cloud as well. I wouldn't be surprised if they send it to China in fact.

They take power from a usb plug. You can flash the camera and use it as a plain streaming 1080p camera ( you can't return it to being a Wyze cam after that though ).

That'd also remove person detection and force you to record everything though. Hardly desirable. I only want it to record when there's something worth recording.

Re: Before buying Ring, WEMO or Roku, consider privacy issues

#27
post #9

I don’t understand the issue here, and it frankly feels like a manufactured outrage from a minority group of activists. If customers voluntarily release a segment of video to law enforcement, so what? That’s their right. People do so in the interest of preventing crime. I don’t have any cameras myself but I completely sympathize with neighbors who have Ring cameras given the huge uptick in property crime here in the…

True What problem if I (anyone) can know where are you now at any point of time, even you newer allow that Or any law enforcement agency can arrest you even if you do nothing and software just wrongly identify your face on crime scene And god forbid if you have not white skin color

What does skin color have to with this? That seems like reckless alarmism. Humans are in the loop to validate facial recognition matches. It’s a first pass filter.

Re: Before buying Ring, WEMO or Roku, consider privacy issues

#28
post #24

During Halloween I was rather concerned while taking my kids to homes with Ring. Luckily in most cases the kids had masks, but still. Next Halloween those homes will be in my do-not-visit list.

Genuine question, what scenario are you trying to avoid?

Re: Before buying Ring, WEMO or Roku, consider privacy issues

#29
post #14

I don’t understand the issue here, and it frankly feels like a manufactured outrage from a minority group of activists. If customers voluntarily release a segment of video to law enforcement, so what? That’s their right. People do so in the interest of preventing crime. I don’t have any cameras myself but I completely sympathize with neighbors who have Ring cameras given the huge uptick in property crime here in the…

I have access to my neighbors ring doorbell so I can keep an eye on my home. It tells me about all the local crime and tries to make me afraid. People report door to door salesmen as suspicious. Get real. The real crime here is fear mongering presumably to sell more security products.

Fear mongering? Property crime is up in many cities. That’s real. The fear mongering is from those attacking Internet-connected cameras and creating a fake outrage when people are just exercising their constitutional rights to record video and exchange information. The entire notion that voluntary disclosure of information will lead to a dystopia is not just the slippery slope fallacy but also ACTUAL fear mongering in action.

And yes it is proper to suspect door to door salesman. Many are criminals casing homes and pretending they are someone else with an alibi. Having them on the radar is appropriate.

Re: Before buying Ring, WEMO or Roku, consider privacy issues

#30

The further down this future we travel, the less I want to do with technology. I am becoming a Luddite. None of this crappy IOT stuff will enter my home.

My roommate has a phone. I didn't think much of it until he said "Ok Google" while cooking. What am I supposed to say here? I don't like microphones being always on either, but it's his phone and his home too. I can't escape the millions of cameras around the city or the constant internet trackers. We should have had regulated this stuff decades ago.

> I don't like microphones being always on either, but it's his phone and his home too.

But it's also your home, and he should respect your wishes for privacy when you make them known.

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