Submitted 4 months ago by 0x0@lemmy.zip to technology@lemmy.world
Amazon’s Ring to partner with Flock, a network of AI cameras used by ICE, feds, and police
Hot take : almost no one actually needs security cameras in their home.
For the very few who do, visible fake cameras do 95% of the job of real cameras with none of the drawbacks.
If you can discourage people from breaking in with a fake camera, you live in a country with a lot of idiots,
How would an intruder ever know the difference ? Just set up a defective camera that you can get for a fraction of the price of a working one.
There is absolutely no way to tell whether the camera actually works or not. It does the same “scarecrow” job a real one would, but doesn’t need any of the infrastructure or upkeep.
Raspberry pi + pi camera + camera case connected to wifi is way better anyway and doesn‘t steal your data
i need them inside for my cats i like to look at them
But they let me see who is at the door without coming up from the basement.
The only drawbacks to having actual security cameras is when you trust your data to a 3rd party known to use your data for evil.
If you record things locally, there’s really zero drawbacks.
That’s annoying (or at least, takes some work) to set up, and more expensive.
Out of order cameras are basically (sometimes literally) free, need no wiring work, and don’t “accidentally” record any embarrassing / private moments you then have to delete !
Hypothetically the police could come with a warrant and foce you to hand over the footage you recorded. It’s a higher barrier than if footage is being uploaded to the cloud, but it can still happen.
And even if the cameras are not uploading their footage to the cloud, it still wouldn’t sit well with me if every other house has a camera pointed at the public street
Unfortunately I recently purchased a couple of ring cameras. Are there any alternatives? One with an app and data base with a similar subscription?
This looked like the most solid path, when I researched about 10 months ago.
Open-source Firmware for Ingenic SoC IP Cameras
Try whatever plus into homeassistant, if anything.
I use Wyze but they have their own issues…
Reolink is what I use. Fairly similar in utility and options. Prices are ok but they go on sale pretty often. Poe, solar, and battery options for power.
Friendly reminder that Reolink cameras need to be denied internet access / isolated on the network because they constantly reach out to a bunch of Chinese IP addresses.
+1 vote for Reeolink
I don’t know if they are any better, but I use Tapo/tplink cameras. No subscription required if you use it with an sd card, but they have a subscription plan for cloud storage.
Alexa isn’t much better. Pretty sure Spanish can be easily distinguished.
Alexa is also the linchpin of Amazon Sidewalk which is opt-out and potentially gives a way for devices in your home (like smart appliances) to connect to the internet whether you give them wifi access or not. Pretty handy surveillance tool.
But don’t worry, we’ve only made Jeff Bezo’s powerful enough to rent Venice for his wedding.
njordomir@lemmy.world 4 months ago
I read this a while back and am already taking action to replace my Ring cams and doorbell with locally controlled Reolink cameras. I already have them set up and working on my desk, just need to finish the actual install. I am currently trying to figure out why I’m getting <12v on my doorbell circuit.