Ring owners are returning their cameras • Hacker News Board

Re: Ring owners are returning their cameras

#231

Post by redwall_hp » Fri, Feb 13, 2026, 3:16 PM UTC

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #121

mingus88 wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Counterpoint: everyone needs to own their own video streams I hate it, but you are being recorded everywhere you go. Your plates and your face get scanned every single day, all day long. This is normalized. Privacy is dead. You will never get access to any of that data when you need it. It is not there to help you. You need to keep your own evidence of the world around you; you never know when you will need it.

I just assume that I’m on video, at any given time. Not condoning it; just accepting reality. > It is not there to help you It’s like those “This call may be monitored for 'quality' purposes.” service calls. You can bet, that if the recording helps the company, they’ll have it, but if it helps you , well, they didn’t record that call.

They're used heavily for the companies to harass and dehumanize the workers, too.

"You didn't try hard enough to sell the customer something else when they called with a major problem."

"How dare you deviate from the script and talk to the caller."

"Why did this take ten minutes? Get those call times down."

Re: Ring owners are returning their cameras

#232

Post by dathinab » Fri, Feb 13, 2026, 3:17 PM UTC

Forgeties79 wrote: post #177

philipallstar wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's the demographics I mean, not the numbers.

I don’t entirely disagree with that but with that kind of traffic/userbase clearly it’s far more mainstream than is being implied. Also, young people are definitely not getting on Facebook, which impacts how “mainstream” we can consider it. Reddit skews a fair bit younger than FB.

> young people are definitely not getting on Facebook

but Reddit is mostly relevant "in the west" where most countries have an inverted age pyramid and most old people are not on Reddit, but on Facebook

and reddit relevance outside of the US is often far less then people think, to a point where many people not even know what it is. It doesn't has a network effect pulling in "friends and family".

and a lot of people "around 30" are still on Facebook due to network effect and active enough to count as active users (which doesn't mean much to be fair)

And in the US around ~18% of US users where in the age group 18-24 in 2025. Idk. how but somehow Facebook still manages to convince surprisingly many "just adults" to join it. And if they aren't on Facebook then they are on WhatsApp and maybe Instagram.

Now all of this doesn't really fully show how relevant reddit is because checking some minor memes once a week makes you show up as active user but also means it's pretty much irrelevant for you.

And if I look at people I interact with or where I can see a bit how they interact (i.e. _very highly biased by social environment_) then thinks look far worse for it. Reddit seems relevant in the US, mainly for people "around" 30. But outside of it, it seems to be more like a footnote. Used, but something most people would not care if it's randomly gone.

Re: Ring owners are returning their cameras

#233

Post by dahart » Fri, Feb 13, 2026, 3:17 PM UTC

travisjungroth wrote: post #216

rob wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We can just look at both's recent reports: Reddit: 121 million "daily active unique users" Source: https://investor.redditinc.com/news-events/news-releases/new... Facebook: 3.58 billion "family daily active people" Source: https://investor.atmeta.com/investor-news/press-release-deta... --- I'd definitely consider both "mainstream". (I know plenty non-tech and "normal" people who use reddit.)

So like 30x the population (not thousands). The thing about Reddit is it really amplifies voices. 10-100 people can be on the same subreddit and comment or post something, and it looks like “a lot” of people. It’s also much easier to be a non-representative sample at 3% of the population than 50%. And, there’s a big sample bias for this sort of thing. I think someone is way more likely to post “I’m getting rid of X”…

For Facebook alone, it’s less than 30x. The “family” in “Family Daily Active People” is also referring to “Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp, and other services.”

Re: Ring owners are returning their cameras

#234

Post by bee_rider » Fri, Feb 13, 2026, 3:18 PM UTC

flyinghamster wrote: post #167

pjmlp wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is very simple, most regular people don't read random blogs, however they do watch Superbowl. This is to be studied by geeks, how to approach non-technical audiences.

Here we have a problem: Hollywood tropes. Shows like The Big Bang Theory aka "Blackface for Nerds" make it nearly impossible to even talk to normals without sounding like Sheldon F. Cooper.

Step 1: don’t call them “normals”

Re: Ring owners are returning their cameras

#235

Post by raw_anon_1111 » Fri, Feb 13, 2026, 3:19 PM UTC

jkestner wrote: post #195

raw_anon_1111 wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this really political? While the right “Backs the Blue” (and ICE), they are just as concerned about the surveillance state as the left. Their threat model is just different as far as why. The right never trusted federal law enforcement.

At least for conservatives who still value those principles when their party is in office, true. Sedona’s successful anti-Flock effort was led by Trump voters. https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/11/flock-haters-cro...

Well we saw the reaction from the NRA and the guns rights group when Trump said the guy in MN wouldn’t have been shot if he hadn’t been carrying a gun. That was a bridge too far for even them.

You let Trump announce that there has to be a national gun registry or mandated vaccines. You see he even stepped away from bragging about the vaccines only happened for Covid because of “Operation Warp Speed” under his administration. That should have been something that any politician would be proud of.

BTW, the only impressive thing that happened in his entire first administration is the speed at which the vaccines were developed and his not letting the economy collapse because of the stimulus and he can’t take credit for either because of his own base

Re: Ring owners are returning their cameras

#236

Post by AlexandrB » Fri, Feb 13, 2026, 3:21 PM UTC

lnsru wrote: post #122

lifestyleguru wrote: post #14

American surveillance is one thing. All over Europe people install Chinese IP cameras mostly from paranoic and imaginary reasons. Camera literally facing neighbour's windows and doors and their neighbour's own camera. Nobody understands that it's economically impossible to sell IP camera with a mobile app and cloud storage of video for 150 EUR. Their business model is not simply selling cameras. EDIT. I'm really conf…

The camera is absolutely doable for 150€. Just look what raspberry Pi costs. The cut all the corners, take ancient ddr2 memory, ancient processor, optimize every piece for manufacturing and it’s done. Of course, CE testing and regulatory nonsense is not included. But would you buy 150€ camera or the same camera with proper certification for 200€?

What's not doable is the cloud storage and app maintenance for that fixed price.

Re: Ring owners are returning their cameras

#237

Post by dathinab » Fri, Feb 13, 2026, 3:25 PM UTC

asdff wrote: post #4

Funny how a single superbowl ad from Ring themselves was able to do in one weekend what a thousand and one anti Ring bloggers were unable to do for the past 10 years straight. This commercial and the response will probably be studied in marketing classes.

sadly where I live (not the US) most people using ring are the kind of older people which through non stop propaganda about how "dangerous it is" don't have any mind left to consider iff maybe that camera is as dangerous just in a different way

now that also brings us to the good news, which is a lot of people really don't like any form of internet connected cameras and the culture related to surveillance to it is very different here.

Re: Ring owners are returning their cameras

#238

Post by dathinab » Fri, Feb 13, 2026, 3:26 PM UTC

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #164

DrScientist wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That one image of all the camera's apparently remotely controlled to scan the entire neighbourhood is something it's difficult to unsee. The implication is obvious, the feel is inhuman. The power of a few seconds of video is why TikTok had to be brought under control ( and sadly not just because of worrying about what others might do, but to specifically censor and promote specific messages ). The issue really isn't…

>The power of a few seconds of video is why TikTok had to be brought under control Didn't USA's current regime take over TikTok in order to use it for propaganda? Twitter-X was used so successfully that they're expanding their psyops.

> to use it for propaganda

AFIK no

But once you do take it over and have no morals, why not also use it for such?

Re: Ring owners are returning their cameras

#239

Post by nindalf » Fri, Feb 13, 2026, 3:27 PM UTC

imperio59 wrote: post #220

eulers_secret wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s interesting how internet backlashes can be large enough to move the needle: ring breaking with flock is evidence of this. Yet simultaneously the internet represents the opinions of a very small and vocal minority. I’ve never seen an internet boycott have an impact.

Bud Light's stock performance last year would like to have a word with you.

Could you analyse AB InBev's stock performance in that period? Because it doesn't look bad to me. [1] It looks like it was $65 before the boycott in April 2023, falling to $55 a couple of months later. But it was back up to $65 by the end of the year. It sits at $80 today.

If I hadn't told you the date of the boycott, would you have been able to spot it on this chart?

[1] - https://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/bud?gaa_at=eafs&...

Re: Ring owners are returning their cameras

#240

Post by mingus88 » Fri, Feb 13, 2026, 3:34 PM UTC

assimpleaspossi wrote: post #158

mingus88 wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Counterpoint: everyone needs to own their own video streams I hate it, but you are being recorded everywhere you go. Your plates and your face get scanned every single day, all day long. This is normalized. Privacy is dead. You will never get access to any of that data when you need it. It is not there to help you. You need to keep your own evidence of the world around you; you never know when you will need it.

What happens to everyone when the plates and faces are recorded or scanned? Who is looking at those every day?

Nobody looks at them. It’s 2026.

In the U.S., municipal vehicles have ALPR scanners on them. They go into a database

Cop cars will ping if a flagged plate is seen (even if the front and back plates don’t match) and the officer will pull you over. Literally happens every day.