Okay but in that case, at least the ones you go on are different from the ones dropping bombs. You're not enabling the bomb-dropping by getting on a plane
The airplanes that we go on are made by companies that also make the airplans that drop bombs.
If I felt it would be morally correct to profit from death and war, I would have been dollar cost averaging Boeing back in 2020. But no, I'm just a working class guy.
Hey I'm not saying getting on planes is unproblematic. But nuance is still important. Having a ring camera is specifically and actively harmful, and not doing it immediately improves things. The impact that any individual or a small group of people can have is magnitudes higher than by not flying. Things can be different levels of bad and pretending they aren't doesn't help anyone
You are right in that a camera that a fascist regime utilizes to ethnically cleanse its population is more directly harmful at a per consumer level.
However, you may be in denial if you think buying a plane ticket for a plane that is built by a defense war corporation, and submitting to facial and other biometric security checks by arms of the same fascist regime that buys weapons of war from the plane manufacture is not participating is some greater evil.
So many modern technologies would be incredibly cool if they weren't operated by untrustworthy people.
The original comment above stands because it shows us how these cool, interesting, sometimes beautiful things can so easily be used for evil.
I am reminded of Miyazaki lovingly using airplanes in his films while also using his films to advocate for peace and stating that he could never really reconcile that airplanes are actually tools of war which his father helped build during world war 2 in Japan and which he attributes to the untimely death of his mother, yet he still loves them and wants to show them in his films.
But this is just one example of amazing technology being used for evil, I'm sure you could think of more.
This is the future. When tech was young, it was amazing and new and could solve any problem. Now it’s just about shareholders, profits, greed and now appeasing the talking orange in DC.
Now you got me thinking of how the convenience of having a source url can be turned into the chains that bind society. One might be able to do something with state controlled centralized DNS I guess.
Introduce them to the worst goatse there is. Print off a bunch of stills, laminate ‘em, and have ‘em cover the entire frame. Rotate through as desired. If they gonna spy, they gonna get goatse’d.
I don't have ring, but my neighbor on the left is Mexican, the one on the right is Romanian. The porno guy on the corner is something (he watches with the curtains open). The Russians down at the end are probably dealing drugs. There's a sweet black family two down.
Bite my ass. I don't know a single one of them, but you Nazi MFers aren't taking them.
I live in NM. My neighborhood is half white, who I almost never see, and half Mexican/other immigrants who are quiet, kind, and helpful, and work jobs like everyone else. A few ICE assholes were in my neighborhood early on a couple of times, but I haven't heard of anyone getting abducted yet.
On Nextdoor, my white neighbors believe only illegal immigrants are being abducted. I suppose that's what Fox "News" tells them. Everything else is "fake news" and "AI" now.
Flock is going to offer facial recognition services to the cities that have flock cameras already installed. Adding ring cameras just adds to the ability of their network. Privacy nightmare
Lots of local-only options out there for security cameras. Doorbell cameras may be a little harder to find, but it looks like they exist.
I have a few Amcrest PoE bullet cameras, and they work great local-only. They're on a separate VLAN, only my server can talk to them, and I have had zero problems with them. They even support NTP, which my router provides, so the clocks stay synced with no intervention. I'm running them with Frigate.
Ubiquiti is an option and many folks already use their switches and other networking gear, but the cameras are a bit pricey and the doorbell is ungodly expensive at $400. I wish they'd release one without so many unnecessary features for half the price.
We only have Ring cameras because they came with the house. Thankfully, I do not live in an area where this is a risk to my neighbors, but I’ve wanted to switch to a local PoE system since we moved in.
Does the system you have give access to the cameras on your phone when away from the house? That’s the one big thing my partner and I want on ours. I’m just barely getting into self hosting, but I’m willing to try to do something with a system that matches our needs.
Depends on you. I use frigate I can access it from outside my house but its your choice how you do it. VPN, reverse proxy, port forwarding all work have own risks but your choice.
Frigate is extremely capable but is severely lacking in the "wife approved" department. I had a Frigate server set up for a few months with one camera, but could not get 2-way audio working properly, no matter what I did. We use 2-way audio quite a lot.
dang, the mass surveillance device disguised as convenience strikes again! and of course a majority are also paying via subscription for even more “convenience”
I don't have one, or any other corporate spy device inside or outside.
My solution to the door is to not answer it unless I know someone is coming over. Simple as. You never NEED to answer your door. If the cops are coming in, they don't care if you answer, or not. Everyone else can call first.
Ring has been a subsidiary of Amazon for years now. They comply with warrants, and ‘emergency requests’ from law enforcement in some cases.
Installing one of these things and sending 24/7 video and audio data of activity on your property and anything else in the camera view has always been a wet dream for people obsessed with perfect information and surveillance.
The previous resident left one next to the front door of our place and it seems to work great without power or data. Never had a problem.
It’s sad that it’s 2026 and tough to find a good ONVIF doorbell. Apparently the new reolink models require the reolink hub. I just want something local I can connect to home assistant that works well…
If anyone has recommendations, I’d appreciate them. Watched a lot of YouTube and a lot of conflicting takes out there where one review is terrible and another sounds like it must be sponsored with how much they love it.
I don’t see anything on the page saying the doorbell requires the hub, just that it works with reolink hub or reolink NVRs. The doorbell also has an SD card slot for local storage. https://m.reolink.com/us/product/reolink-doorbell-battery/
Amazon reviews were the first place I saw it and reolink even has a page about onvif doorbells where they say that the new model requires the hub. I don’t remember if it was all new models but pretty sure it was at least the new WiFi one since that’s what I’d need.
I will add, now that I have one, the only reolink doorbell that can operate an existing hardwired chime is the one that has a battery in it. I sent them feedback that this feature should be more prominent in the device comparisons for whatever good that’ll do.
The wifi one without battery won’t do it. I’m just going to move it to another door where that doesn’t really matter later when I buy the battery one next month. As it is, no hub is needed from my experience, though I did buy the 32channel NVR they sell. Thing takes up to three drives for a max of 48TB. Currently have a 4TB drive from bv-security in it.
What a shame. Nothing new unfortunately. When amazing bought ring it went down hill fast. I had a ring cam and a nest camera inside. Before Google bought nest I could use the cameras live view to check on my dog. Once Google bought it they updated the user agreement and you have to agree to give Google full access to the camera 24/7. Fuck that man. Ive come to realize that a camera system with local storage is the only way to go. Which is pricey unfortunately
Do any of yall know of any decent brands with local storage?
Depends on what you are looking for but I'm having good results with Unifi branded cameras and storage.
It is technically possible to use the cameras without the branded recorder or the reverse with the Network Video Recorder saving video from other brands of cameras over RTSP.
However in practice it only really makes sense to do that if you already have some equipment. Long term they really are designed to work with their own stuff. Pretty price reasonable and work both wired or wi-fi depending on the particular models you get. Happy to share more details if anyone is interested.
Ive come to realize that a camera system with local storage is the only way to go. Which is pricey unfortunately
The only reason Ring and Nest weren't pricey is because they are bring subsidized by the profits generated by using them to track you. The same with nearly every smart phone on the market. Especially the flagships. You think a Pixel 10 really only cost $600 or $700 to produce?? Or an iPhone or a OnePlus?? Get the picture.
Not advocating for Ring use but doesn’t enabling feed and storage encryption reduce/remove this problem? Enabling it seems to limit a lot of features that would be dependent upon an unencrypted feed.
Unless you're given a decryption key and you have audited the source code to understand that you're the only recipient of that decryption key. You should always assume that the vendor of such a service can decrypt your data if they wanted/have a reason to.
73 replies
Ring was ALWAYS a mass surveillance tool.
its by amazon, which they are likely using the cloud to store it and they provide aws to the military as well.
Common knowledge in a privacy community.
Gonna send this to my MIL so I don't have to come to family gatherings anymore
So many modern technologies would be incredibly cool if they weren't operated by untrustworthy people.
Airplanes are cool, and they drop bombs.
Okay but in that case, at least the ones you go on are different from the ones dropping bombs. You're not enabling the bomb-dropping by getting on a plane
The airplanes that we go on are made by companies that also make the airplans that drop bombs.
If I felt it would be morally correct to profit from death and war, I would have been dollar cost averaging Boeing back in 2020. But no, I'm just a working class guy.
Hey I'm not saying getting on planes is unproblematic. But nuance is still important. Having a ring camera is specifically and actively harmful, and not doing it immediately improves things. The impact that any individual or a small group of people can have is magnitudes higher than by not flying. Things can be different levels of bad and pretending they aren't doesn't help anyone
You are right in that a camera that a fascist regime utilizes to ethnically cleanse its population is more directly harmful at a per consumer level.
However, you may be in denial if you think buying a plane ticket for a plane that is built by a
defensewar corporation, and submitting to facial and other biometric security checks by arms of the same fascist regime that buys weapons of war from the plane manufacture is not participating is some greater evil.The original comment above stands because it shows us how these cool, interesting, sometimes beautiful things can so easily be used for evil.
I am reminded of Miyazaki lovingly using airplanes in his films while also using his films to advocate for peace and stating that he could never really reconcile that airplanes are actually tools of war which his father helped build during world war 2 in Japan and which he attributes to the untimely death of his mother, yet he still loves them and wants to show them in his films.
But this is just one example of amazing technology being used for evil, I'm sure you could think of more.
This is the future. When tech was young, it was amazing and new and could solve any problem. Now it’s just about shareholders, profits, greed and now appeasing the talking orange in DC.
Can still do stuff you just have to work at it.
This post is fantastic for 2 reasons:
It's so important to raise awareness of how these 'conveniences' like the Ring Doorbell are being turned into the chains that will bind society
This post includes an in-image cite with both text url and a QR! This should be standard on any image post like this.
Well played.
Now you got me thinking of how the convenience of having a source url can be turned into the chains that bind society. One might be able to do something with state controlled centralized DNS I guess.
And you know what they want to see?
Ballsacks and butt holes. Ding-dong motherfuckers.
Give them ... Free amateur porn?
You. I like your style mister.
Introduce them to the worst goatse there is. Print off a bunch of stills, laminate ‘em, and have ‘em cover the entire frame. Rotate through as desired. If they gonna spy, they gonna get goatse’d.
Anyone paying attention knows Ring has been using these doorbells in full cooperation with politice departments for something like a decade or more.
If you didn't know they were doing this, you need to pay better attention. Throw that shit away if you own one.
I don't have ring, but my neighbor on the left is Mexican, the one on the right is Romanian. The porno guy on the corner is something (he watches with the curtains open). The Russians down at the end are probably dealing drugs. There's a sweet black family two down.
Bite my ass. I don't know a single one of them, but you Nazi MFers aren't taking them.
I live in NM. My neighborhood is half white, who I almost never see, and half Mexican/other immigrants who are quiet, kind, and helpful, and work jobs like everyone else. A few ICE assholes were in my neighborhood early on a couple of times, but I haven't heard of anyone getting abducted yet.
On Nextdoor, my white neighbors believe only illegal immigrants are being abducted. I suppose that's what Fox "News" tells them. Everything else is "fake news" and "AI" now.
If this is a surprise to somebody, I question their critical thinking skills.
It is a surprise to me, I didn't know they weren't doing it yet.
Ring has been giving police warentless access to video for as long they've been around. Its hardly news.
That was on demand though, not passively fed to Flock
Weren't you aware of the Snowden revelations?
Read my first comment
My bad. Misread it :)
old ppl.
They must love being paid monthly for it too. Or is the ring doorbell a yearly sub? 🤷
Paying for the device to be spied upon is one thing, but paying a subscription to be continuously spied upon is another.
Carrying it around in our pockets and bringing it everywhere we go, is another thing altogether..
I'd guess both. It's normally X/month or Y/year for subscriptions.
Flock is going to offer facial recognition services to the cities that have flock cameras already installed. Adding ring cameras just adds to the ability of their network. Privacy nightmare
Lots of local-only options out there for security cameras. Doorbell cameras may be a little harder to find, but it looks like they exist.
I have a few Amcrest PoE bullet cameras, and they work great local-only. They're on a separate VLAN, only my server can talk to them, and I have had zero problems with them. They even support NTP, which my router provides, so the clocks stay synced with no intervention. I'm running them with Frigate.
Ubiquiti is an option and many folks already use their switches and other networking gear, but the cameras are a bit pricey and the doorbell is ungodly expensive at $400. I wish they'd release one without so many unnecessary features for half the price.
They have. The Doorbell Lite is $99.
You just made my day, I can ditch my remaining Nest cam!
Oh damn, I've been waiting for this! Shame it's only POE... I rent and so I can't use this. Gotta have a wifi version.
We only have Ring cameras because they came with the house. Thankfully, I do not live in an area where this is a risk to my neighbors, but I’ve wanted to switch to a local PoE system since we moved in.
Does the system you have give access to the cameras on your phone when away from the house? That’s the one big thing my partner and I want on ours. I’m just barely getting into self hosting, but I’m willing to try to do something with a system that matches our needs.
Depends on you. I use frigate I can access it from outside my house but its your choice how you do it. VPN, reverse proxy, port forwarding all work have own risks but your choice.
Thanks for the info
Frigate is extremely capable but is severely lacking in the "wife approved" department. I had a Frigate server set up for a few months with one camera, but could not get 2-way audio working properly, no matter what I did. We use 2-way audio quite a lot.
Reolink will give you cloud access but has local storage and good privacy history
Thanks! I’ll check them out.
dang, the mass surveillance device disguised as convenience strikes again! and of course a majority are also paying via subscription for even more “convenience”
I don't have one, or any other corporate spy device inside or outside.
My solution to the door is to not answer it unless I know someone is coming over. Simple as. You never NEED to answer your door. If the cops are coming in, they don't care if you answer, or not. Everyone else can call first.
Door Knocker
Ring has been a subsidiary of Amazon for years now. They comply with warrants, and ‘emergency requests’ from law enforcement in some cases.
Installing one of these things and sending 24/7 video and audio data of activity on your property and anything else in the camera view has always been a wet dream for people obsessed with perfect information and surveillance.
The previous resident left one next to the front door of our place and it seems to work great without power or data. Never had a problem.
Maybe we could design a sticker for the camera that explains that.
With the camera covered, it can still be used as a doorbell. And if they remove it, I guess we can't help them.
Reolink
Something local.
Yep almost all of these things are super sketch
It’s sad that it’s 2026 and tough to find a good ONVIF doorbell. Apparently the new reolink models require the reolink hub. I just want something local I can connect to home assistant that works well…
If anyone has recommendations, I’d appreciate them. Watched a lot of YouTube and a lot of conflicting takes out there where one review is terrible and another sounds like it must be sponsored with how much they love it.
Power over ethernet cameras to a switch connected to a zoneminder server.
This does require running the ethernet cable plus the server infra and managing it yourself but as far as I know it's the best solution.
I use a TP-Link Tapo doorbell which only records video on-site (I have not subscribed to the cloud service).
As best I understand, as the data is hosted locally - TP-Link are unable to share video with Law Enforcement even if they want to.
I don’t see anything on the page saying the doorbell requires the hub, just that it works with reolink hub or reolink NVRs. The doorbell also has an SD card slot for local storage. https://m.reolink.com/us/product/reolink-doorbell-battery/
Amazon reviews were the first place I saw it and reolink even has a page about onvif doorbells where they say that the new model requires the hub. I don’t remember if it was all new models but pretty sure it was at least the new WiFi one since that’s what I’d need.
I will add, now that I have one, the only reolink doorbell that can operate an existing hardwired chime is the one that has a battery in it. I sent them feedback that this feature should be more prominent in the device comparisons for whatever good that’ll do.
The wifi one without battery won’t do it. I’m just going to move it to another door where that doesn’t really matter later when I buy the battery one next month. As it is, no hub is needed from my experience, though I did buy the 32channel NVR they sell. Thing takes up to three drives for a max of 48TB. Currently have a 4TB drive from bv-security in it.
What a shame. Nothing new unfortunately. When amazing bought ring it went down hill fast. I had a ring cam and a nest camera inside. Before Google bought nest I could use the cameras live view to check on my dog. Once Google bought it they updated the user agreement and you have to agree to give Google full access to the camera 24/7. Fuck that man. Ive come to realize that a camera system with local storage is the only way to go. Which is pricey unfortunately
Do any of yall know of any decent brands with local storage?
Depends on what you are looking for but I'm having good results with Unifi branded cameras and storage.
It is technically possible to use the cameras without the branded recorder or the reverse with the Network Video Recorder saving video from other brands of cameras over RTSP.
However in practice it only really makes sense to do that if you already have some equipment. Long term they really are designed to work with their own stuff. Pretty price reasonable and work both wired or wi-fi depending on the particular models you get. Happy to share more details if anyone is interested.
Thanks man. I really appreciate your input! Ill check them out.
The only reason Ring and Nest weren't pricey is because they are bring subsidized by the profits generated by using them to track you. The same with nearly every smart phone on the market. Especially the flagships. You think a Pixel 10 really only cost $600 or $700 to produce?? Or an iPhone or a OnePlus?? Get the picture.
My doorbell doesn't even work, let alone record anything. It works for me real well as a decoy for a working doorbell.
My brother has one :(
I can't think of a way of talking to him about it, which wouldn't make him want to use it more.
It sucks when you have to live in a house, and the owner is alright with Ring.
Anyone got any open-source alternatives?
Door knocker
Ah yes, I’m sure that’ll make people think twice before breaking and entering.
Good thing my Mom, my older sibling Jeb and I don't even use that Ring camera. Seriously!
Not advocating for Ring use but doesn’t enabling feed and storage encryption reduce/remove this problem? Enabling it seems to limit a lot of features that would be dependent upon an unencrypted feed.
I trust ring encryption about as far as I can throw WhatsApp encryption.
As much as I share your position, sounds like everyone has as many questions as I do and no more answers.
Unless you're given a decryption key and you have audited the source code to understand that you're the only recipient of that decryption key. You should always assume that the vendor of such a service can decrypt your data if they wanted/have a reason to.
Who stores the key? Do you create it or do they. If they create the key then they can keep a copy.