381–390 of 532 posts
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I used to have things stolen off my porch frequently. After installing a Ring camera, that ended immediately and never happened again. It did seem to work as a deterrent.
You don’t have to pick a dystopian spyware camera to deter porch theft. This attitude is why we can’t have nice things.
It blows my mind how quickly people put up home cameras with zero thought to * (1) what gets captured * (2) who gets what gets captured Walk down the street of any middle-class neighborhood in a major suburb: a healthy chunk have cameras. Let's say 60%. So, you and your family are being passively surveilled on a massive scale … for the benefit of someone who's not you preventing another someone from stealing their bi…
> Is this a reasonable tradeoff? Is it fair to others? Devils advocate: You word this in a way that implies it is negative, but the fact so many people do it suggests many or most people don’t agree with you. Maybe having cameras around makes the average person feel safe? It sucks for you as a privacy minded individual, but ultimately who are you to tell your neighbors they can’t have cameras on their property? The s…
Interesting point! Attempted interpretation: "I'm a person walking by a house that has a camera, and it makes me feel better knowing there's a recording of what's happening to me … in the event that I'm robbed/harassed/assaulted/etc." Also: no need for an alibi, when there's record of you being pretty much everywhere.
I wonder if anyone has studied whether cameras being present in communities increase the net level of trust with which people operate? I would assume the net benefit would be "everyone's less worried/suspicious, so operates with greater baseline trust."
This feels like similar territory as social media, where we (humans) tend to think the system operates with the same set of rules/principles as normal socialization, but vastly underestimate the scale in which we're now operating.
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I expect people who buy them haven't personally witnessed what it looks like to report property crime—even fairly major property crime—to the police. Which is to say, they don't realize that there's almost no chance they'll do anything about it at all except issue a report for insurance (if you want one, and probably for a fee just to add insult to injury) even if you come to them with all kinds of evidence, up to an…
My personal experience from a home invasion where the individual caused a not insignificant amount of damage to the home resulted in nothing more than the police merely filing in a form and handing me a receipt. My personal experience from coming home to a burgled also ended with the same situation. The police came, waited from crime lab to take prints, prints were not recoverable, no follow up. This was even after s…
My next door neighbor (we share a wall) had their bicycles stolen twice, so they installed Ring (floodlight) cameras in both the backyard and the front porch. After a year, the cameras have yielded no added security, or caught any "bad guys" as far as I can tell and from what they told me. What I realized, is they use it to keep track of their kids, funny cat videos that trigger the recording, and most importantly, a…
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>> People want to live in suburbs, where their residences are separated from commercial areas. This starves city and town centers, leaving only big businesses that are capable of thriving on high volume sales. What are you supposed to do really? I grew up in an urban environment (NYC) and embraced urban living. The reality was that it wasnt sustainable w/o being a multi-millionaire. I'll give real examples. I take a…
I am very definitely not a multi-millionaire, and I've lived in NYC nearly my entire life. It's a big city and things certainly vary by availability, but there's a pet store 4 blocks from my apartment (in a not especially dense, mostly residential neighborhood). What you're describing is the pathological case. The similar pathological case for the suburbs is a 20 minute trip to Costco, only to get stuck in an extra h…
I have both children and happened to have a knee injury for several years. That turns a huge number of seemingly normal things into "pathological cases." Ever try bringing a stroller up and down a subway stairwell? Ever try bringing a stroller into a usually crowded bus? Ever try literally anything mass transit related with a child or knee injury? I dont think children are that uncommon here. Sure, if I had a full-time nanny that would solve the problem, but then as I said, its all easy with money.
Also, not sure if you live in the wealthier areas of NYC (read: those with multiple subways), but things magically become easier and easier in wealthier areas. Now try living in a neighborhood with a single train line. Now see what happens when the train just randomly starts skipping your stop all the time and going express. Poor-people problems.
Groceries with a child...not hard. Groceries in the winter with a child? Hard. Groceries in the rain with a child? Hard. Possible, of course, but its also possible to live in a tent in the forest.
At some point, practical starts to overtake merely possible. Interestingly in the suburbs, all these things are possible for those on mere mortal salaries. Hence, despite literally having "NYC" in my username I no longer live in NYC.
Finally. Suppose I did get a stuck in traffic job for an hour with a baby in tow on the way to Costco...it isnt really the end of the world...you turn on the radio and spend the time. Its not like its freezing and i'm standing on a subway platform praying the next train is not going to skip my stop while my baby cries from weather exposure or while my knee gives in.
My next door neighbor (we share a wall) had their bicycles stolen twice, so they installed Ring (floodlight) cameras in both the backyard and the front porch. After a year, the cameras have yielded no added security, or caught any "bad guys" as far as I can tell and from what they told me. What I realized, is they use it to keep track of their kids, funny cat videos that trigger the recording, and most importantly, a…
You have no right not to be recorded in public in my opinion. You're the one shooting photons onto their property (the camera) that they should be able to do what they want with.
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You're comparing apples and oranges. One is legal and the other isn't. They absolutely have the right to record audio that is audible on their property. It used to be the norm that if you don't want your neighbors hearing you the onus is on you to speak quietly in a private place. With the increase in such devices the norm too will shift to "know that a device is recording audio in certain zones"
That's not exactly true. Many states have laws outlawing recording "private" conversations without the consent of all parties. As far as I know that would even include recording someone having a private conversation with you on your own property. Whether or not someone talking on their own property and their voice carrying over their property line would qualify is up for debate.
- Whether the recording was intentional (i.e. if I set up cameras for security, and it so happens to record all your conversations on your front porch, this is unintentional, but if I set up a microphone by the wall, it's intentional).
- The type of communication - most resources I'm finding discuss phones and similar channels.
From what I could find:
I just checked one state: Video recordings are fine, but if they capture the audio of the conversation, then it's a violation of the law.
Other places define a violation of reasonable expectation of privacy to require an explicit intent to eavesdrop - so if it's a side effect of my security system, it's not illegal.
In a number of states, your front porch or backyard are not considered private places. If the conversation is between you and someone else (not the neighbor), then by federal law, intentionally recording the conversation is illegal (neither party consented). When it's unintentional, it'll probably vary from state to state.
In most places they can point the cameras onto the exterior of your property. But if it can see inside a bedroom (even if the window is open and no curtains are drawn), it can be a violation.
Interesting side effect of searching for this: Video monitoring of your baby may be illegal!
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I can only second this. If this were my neighbor I would get a restraining order against them. Recording your neighbors kids in the yard to me sounds borderline problematic. I just can't find any sane justification for behavior like that.
If you tried to get a restraining order for my camera which incidentally overlooks the neighbor's driveway (no kids playing there), you would be laughed at. I'm not breaking any law, nor do I have any ill intent. The kids I incidentally tape are in a school yard across the street from me, and after Uvalde, both the cops and the school admins would welcome another source of information to help them prevent school kill…
My next door neighbor (we share a wall) had their bicycles stolen twice, so they installed Ring (floodlight) cameras in both the backyard and the front porch. After a year, the cameras have yielded no added security, or caught any "bad guys" as far as I can tell and from what they told me. What I realized, is they use it to keep track of their kids, funny cat videos that trigger the recording, and most importantly, a…
My sister has cameras on the outside of our house. When neighbors asked her to point them away from their houses, my sister also lost her shit. Even when the police came by, she got so upset that the police re-aimed her cameras when they got her distracted.
For some reason people who get involved in shootings try to hide their guns in our neighborhood (there are some unique cars and unique landscaping in this neighborhood). Her cameras have resulted in the police recovering about a dozen guns during 2021 and several arrests when the perps come by a few hours later to pick them up.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
My personal experience from a home invasion where the individual caused a not insignificant amount of damage to the home resulted in nothing more than the police merely filing in a form and handing me a receipt. My personal experience from coming home to a burgled also ended with the same situation. The police came, waited from crime lab to take prints, prints were not recoverable, no follow up. This was even after s…
Yep. I've seen (and personally experienced) individuals and small businesses suffer property crime ranging from low thousands to upper five figures. Not once has any amount of evidence, including the aforementioned faces-and-license-plates video evidence, or in another case multiple credit card transactions at places that assuredly have cameras covering both the register and parking lot (and at least once at a hotel,…
The police know who they work for, and they will expend all the resources they have to go after people they simply just don't like, no matter how petty the crime.