While your at it, dont buy from amazon
There was a time when I thought that was impossible… now I don’t even have an account
I think my wife keeps one because according to her (and I believe this is true) there are things you just can’t buy elsewhere anymore. So far, I have been fine not buying something if it’s only on Amazon but I can see cases where that would be impossible.
Other than that, fuck Amazon right off
thing you just can’t buy elsewhere anymore
Yes and no. For example I had to buy double-sided tape and went into four different stores in different areas of my city and only found it in the fourth store after researching.
I checked on Amazon after the fact, and could have had it delivered to my door same-day lol.
I don’t believe there’s anything you can only buy on Amazon… but it IS so bloody convenient.
*you’re
You would think that text prediction would be better by now but no
People send me links to Amazon products and seem bewildered when I just don’t open them and or respond to send me the actual link to the mfr website.
Fuck amazon
It would be cool if we could hack the feeds shown by our own cameras to show images of Donald and Epstein together, so every time they look, everytime they use our cameras, it’s logged with images of Donny and his best friend
Are people going to start listening to their “paranoid” nephews yet?
https://hrnews1.substack.com/p/ring-cameras-join-flock-and-amazon?r=1t17zr
Did OP know the form to create/edit posts has a field named URL?
First and foremost I would never use one of these things.
That said, supposedly, you can opt out. That won’t protect you from warranted access from law enforcement. Probably not worth it, the peephole works fine.
Have considered a plain old doorbel and a peep hole on the door?
Low tech, cheap, cheap to install, lasts a lifetime.
Heck, if safety is the concern, install a periscope. Yes, mirrora inside a tube, to get to see, from a distance, who is at the door.
You want footage? Photos?
Install a local camera. Like one of those that are setup by biologists to film animals in the wild. Triggered by motion sensing. Or talk with someone technically inclined and install a local system.
I’m more concerned about safety on my property than privacy. I use Wyze Cams. I’m fine with it.
You can have both. I have a 360 camera set up around my house that records to a local dvr. I can remote into it when I’m not home and I’m not supporting ghoulish companies like google or Amazon.
You can have both if you have the know how and time to do so. I’d rather just pay $60 a year and under $100 for the cameras. How does Wyze support Google and Amazon? I’m genuinely asking.
My bad, I mixed up wyze with nest, which google owns. Amazon owns blink and ring. I do know wyze was founded by former Amazon employees, which is definitely not the same as their being controlled or supported by Amazon. That said, you may want to read up on some of their security breaches, which have happened multiple times.
I’m aware. I just don’t care that some random person could see my driveway momentarily. If it kept happening, I would cancel.
It’s not just a random person, you’re opening yourself up to the government subpoenaing wyze and collecting information about you without your knowledge or consent. In a normal world with a responsible government that wouldn’t be a huge deal provided you’re not doing anything seriously wrong, but that ship has sailed as of late. Don’t let them incriminate you with a fishing expedition for convenience
oh wow that’s crazy. Why would they do that though? What does a fishing expedition mean?
Which camera and software? I self-host some stuff, but there is a “too complex” point I sometimes reach.
The cameras I inherited from the previous owner. They’re fairly low quality analog cameras but they get the job done. They had a Night Owl Brand system but I replaced it with a reolink dvr I have on a vlan so it’s separate from the rest of my network. When I have more time I’ll probably switch over to frigate though. That’ll likely come with me buying some higher quality cameras that are digital.
Thanks, I’ll look into those. I have a Wyze system without cloud features, but I’m sure privacy isn’t perfect.
You might want to consider a different brand:
“So violated”: Wyze cameras leak footage to strangers for 2nd time in 5 months
I saw that when it happened. I’m not really bothered by the fact that a random person somewhere may have seen my driveway. If it kept happening, sure. I don’t have the wherewithal and time to set up a camera on a server, and in this day and age I feel like some sort of security camera is necessary. There’s a serious case for privacy, but not all of us have the capability or concern that the echo-chamber on Lemmy does about immaculate privacy.
You’ll get downvoted for having this opinion here but it’s a real take. Everyone has their own level of privacy they’re okay with and yours is a bit lower than the average user here.
If you’re okay with the potential risk, then that is your own choice, no one is forcing you.
Thank you for understanding that. This platform assumes the whole world functions as they do and has no understanding for people who either just don’t care or lack ability.
I’ve disconnected the doorbell at every place I’ve lived in the last 10 years. If I’m expecting you I’ll be waiting and opening the door for you, everyone else can leave a message or find a different way to contact me
Absolutely this. Not many people understand this, especially not my gen (x) or older. Here they’re all pavlov’ed to open the door when it rings or answer the phone. I never do that.
I don’t answer the phone unless you are in my contacts list or I am specifically expecting a call.
If someone calls and doesn’t leave a voicemail or text, then it isnt important.
Filters out the junk (and often outright scam) calls.
Exactly. The important people know how to reach me, all others simply aren’t.
Fed ex and UPS with sign for packages.
These would generally fall under the “expected” category.
Yes, in the
threeninefourteen hour window they might show up in.I’m at work for most of that window. And when I miss it, they’ll try again the next day at the same time…believe it or not, I’ll be at work then too.
What’s fun is now UPS wants a second shipping fee to schedule a time or hold your package for you. You can no longer presign their little paper to leave the package. The only option is to pay, or they’ll return your package.
It’s extortion.
Worse, I was home both days and they never knocked or rang the bell. I let them return the package, on them, took my full refund, then reordered. We cycled through this game until someone rang the bell.
So nothing relevant to you at all, in these circumstances.
Not everything is about me. My comment was more tongue-in-cheek than anything.
More seriously, the tracking numbers usually narrow it down to an hour or 2 if you actually follow it. Given the once every few years that I have a package requiring a signature, I think I can handle it.
Or just use one of the hundreds of other brands that provide smart doorbells.
Honest question: what is the reason to have a doorbell of this kind?
How else can you have the pleasure of telling Jehovah’s Witnesses to go away when you’re not at home?
I was waiting for this reply!
I love those guys! Trolling them always makes my day. Asking if they are willing to help clean the house never fails to get them off my door.
What if they agree to clean if you just listen to them?
If you can see it’s a salesperson you can ignore them but answer if it’s the mailman/UPS. Get notified that a package was dropped off… or that shortly thereafter some rando walks up to said package.
Think of it as a door-peephole-at-range.
In addition to “normal” uses, my kids got into the habit of leaving me messages on the camera when I’m in the office and they are leaving for school. I grew to love these messages.
Using Eufy with local storage. Don’t know whether anything gets stored to the cloud, but I guess data still passes through Eufy servers when I view the videos.
- Not getting off the sofa. Video doorbell pops up on my watch, no matter where I happen to be, so I can immediately decide whether it can interrupt what I’m doing.
- Shut the hell up. Sometimes I turn off the chimes so I’m not bothered by yet another door to door sales drone. But I still have my watch in case whoever is at the door is legitimate
- Intercom. My kid sometimes want to tell me something without coming inside
- History. Yes, sometimes I want to scroll back through all motion trigger s in front of my door
- Wildlife. Minor feature but it is occasionally fascinating to see what animals amble in front of my door. I’m urban so it’s limited but we have turkeys and coyotes
Many.
If you get deliveries and they’re mishandled, you have a recording of it.
If someone comes to your door when you’re not home, you can talk to them.
You can also set up local AI alerts (AI here is mostly used for facial recognition) e.g. to alert you if your MIL comes around uninvited, or if your kids sneak out at 2am, and so on.
Once you begin appreciating a home CCTV camera setup (fully local mind you), you’ll see the benefit of having your doorbell video-ed up as well.
You can also set up local AI alerts (AI here is mostly used for facial recognition) e.g. to alert you if your MIL comes around uninvited, or if your kids sneak out at 2am, and so on.
That sounds awful. I’d rather just not, and avoid that mindset altogether.
Avoid the mindset that your kid might sneak out, or an unwanted guest might have shown up?
Ignorance may be bliss, but it certainly doesn’t stop shenanigans from happening.
In the context of parenting there are certainly better things you can do to prevent “shennanigans” other than subjecting them to surveillance. Like you know… raising them?
Terrifying with a generation of peole grown up under total control and expected to be perfectly obedient. They will be shitty adults. But hey, at least they won’t have memories of that time they snuck out at night to watch the stars.
The idea of going back to a blind simple lock protecting my house, pets, and stuff is crazy to me - smart CCTV and an internet connected alarm system are so much better, plus there’s no “monitoring” cost like some folks pay. $40 so you can call the cops for me? No.
Tells you when a package arrived and when the neighbor stole it off your porch. Tells you someone rang the bell when not home and lets you remotely yell ant the door to door sales people.
I mean they’re useful, but I sure wouldn’t ever trust one connected to any sort of cloud.
I do have a UniFi door cam that records to a local hard drive. I like it. Ties in with my other cameras to watch my vehicle in my driveway.
I like to know when a package arrives, and when someone has stolen it.
Doorbell cams are just too convenient. You already have power there. There’s footage and audio.
Of course, I’m technically inclined…
Make sure to put a cover on the peephole. There is some sort of lens or something that can allow someone outside to see through it.
If it doesn’t use a BNC connector I don’t trust it
We can only hope these companies are treated as collaborators in the future.
How were collaborators treated the last time around though?
the nazi scientists got employed in the US, so theres that. and plus we had a nazi party in the usa that was never sanctioned.
Volkswagen, Ford, UBS, and IBM are all doing pretty well.
Nike, Adidas
How was Nike involved? They didn’t exist until ~ the 70s I thought.
Sorry, Hugo Boss
Ah, that one makes sense.
You presumably mean that Hugo Boss ‘designed the SS uniform’ — which he didn’t, as he wasn’t a designer and the company wasn’t in fashion design until after his death. The uniform was designed by two dudes in the SS, and Hugo Boss’ company was one of many manufacturers contracted for production.
Hugo Boss was a member of the Nazi party, though.
Even the company that made the gas for hitlers gas chambers are still around
Zyklon-B, the pesticide used in the gas chambers, was still being manufactured, sold and used (for its intended pesticide usage) all the way up until the 2010s iirc.
and this was still under the Zyklon name.
Imagine all the jobs that would be lost if we stopped using zyklon b to gas undesirables! Wrings hands.
If you see what was done to VW, I think it makes sense though. Not really familiar with the histories of the others in relation.
All those rocket engineers got cushy jobs with NASA too.
Not that it makes it any better, but at least they tried hiding operation paperclip. Hopefully indicating some kind of shame.
Volkswagen didn’t even change their name
Barely changed the logo
“Yeah we were the nazi car company who helped do the holocaust. That was a doozy. Anyways, wanna buy a nazi car?”
When do you people WAKE UP? What accountability? What responsibility? When in the last decade plus has any if that happened?
I’m sure it’s just around the corner…
Open your damn eyes. The entire planet can see it, why are Americans so blind?l is it intentional? You guys let J6 slide ffs, why would there be an ounce of accountability now or ever? UNREAL
it’s very real. This is history repeating itself for the umpteenth time. You aren’t the first, nor will you be the last one to scream into the void about people who have been deliberately disenfranchised by their government with the direct intent of making them toothless against what is essentially a fascist regime.
The problem is that you’re screaming a lot but not offering actual solutions except a general idea of “Fight!”. That’s not helpful, and it sounds a lot like condescension.
I understand that you’re expressing frustration and disbelief and anger. But people here are angry too and they are fighting where they can. But as this and other news is very demonstrative of, the system is rigged against them and things get worse in that regard every day.
App stores removing apps that track ICE. People who share their outrage but not solutions/who don’t boost actual efforts to fight.
News article that focus solely on the bad part and offer no solutions. The fact that you don’t come across many posts with actual solutions isn’t a it’s intentional. People ignore things that help so they can remain outraged, supercilious, and smug.
All I’ve heard for 40 years of life is 2a this and 2a that. Turns out it was just an excuse for school shootings and gun nuts to keep their toys. Your answer is staring you in the face, whether you want to acknowledge or not is another thing.
Do you really believe the traditional channels will be of any use? Or have those already - long, long - been compromised?
Even if the channels had just been neutered yesterday, do yoy really think Trump would give back an inch? He’ll TACO all day on tariffs, but on human rights violations he is consistent - take and never return.
You’re platitudes are lovely, and in fairness, not even entirely incorrect. But what you, and eveidently millions and millions of Americans don’t seem to understand, is the milk has already been spilled. The how and the why are for scholars a hundred years from now to sort out. For today, tomorrow and the day after, y’all need to find a way to stop the continous slide. It’s not getting easier next week or the week after.
Label me WHATEVER you like that gets people’s ASSES IN GEAR. As angry as I am, amazingly enough I am still on your side. I should be flushing every bloody word an American speaks to me straight down the toilet after your Dear Leader and half the country shit on an ally in ways never seen before. Yet here I am, trying to propel you people to acknowlegde the real situation for what it is. Why is that? Truthfully, I’m selfish. I’d love to not have to take up arms to defend my border, but let’s be honest, that’s inevitable if Americans don’t clean up their own shit.
So before you come and tell me how smug and supercilious I’m being, take a moment to realize this - becuase of your people’s patently obvius shitty decisions, I have to enlist and potentially PUT MY LIFE ON THE LINE to defend my country against an ‘ally’. Pardon me for not giving a fuck about your spineless response and pages of assinine commentary.
GO DO SOMETHING.
So before you come and tell me how smug and supercilious I’m being, take a moment to realize this - becuase of your people’s patently obvius shitty decisions, I have to enlist and potentially PUT MY LIFE ON THE LINE to defend my country against an ‘ally’.
“Americans, PUT YOUR LIFE ON THE LINE and take up personal firearms against your own armed federal agents so that I don’t have to enlist and defend my own country, potentially putting my own life on the line! How very fucking dare you make me find my own spine! I should not have to defend my own country!”
Son, I don’t have to tell you how smug and supercilious you are. Even the shittiest mirror can do it at this point.
Pardon me for not giving a fuck about your spineless response and pages of assinine commentary.
Coming from the massive walls of text you just wrote yourself this is just unintentionally hilarious on multiple levels.
But please, carry on. Don’t let me interrupt you. Huff and puff and tell us all everything you’re absolutely not but THAT OTHER GUY IS!!!1!!1!!!11!!!.
EDITED TO ADD: Fifteen day old account and sounds exactly like someone else I blocked a couple of weeks ago, lol. I guess the other account just wasn’t getting the traction anymore.
Yes, everyone is a bot. You’re right. And this is an alt account. Nice work Sherlock. I guess that makes everything I said incorrect? Because my account is 15 days old? Nice strawman.
I’ll entertain this so it’s in writing:
- I had never heard of Lemmy until a few months ago. Why is that? Because I am actively divesting from US assets and companies. Why is that? Clearly Trump and the last 12 months.
- I enjoyed Reddit. Quite a bit. I was reluctant to leave because of all subreddits I’d curated and they have great niche places. Their sports communities are second to none, for example.
- I fully admit the first time I tried to setup Lemmy it was a fail. I went back to Reddit for another few months as a result.
- Trump continues and continues to insult his allies and the 101 other things he’s done to make humanity worse off than the day before. So again I made a push to divest.
- SO I TRIED LEMMY AGAIN. Imagine the horror, I had to make an account at some point. Apologies I wasn’t a super duper early adopter like you were. Frankly, if Trump isn’t President I never show up here at all.
Wanna run that through ChatGPT to make sure it’s authentic.
So back to the ACTUAL DISCUSSION POINT: This isn’t about my spine you idiot. I didn’t vote for him and I’m not an American citizen. YOU HAD THE CHANCE. He was voted out and then allowed to return. I had zero ability to influence any of that.
And because of your countries moral bankruptcy, now we are preparing to defend ourselves against an ‘ally’. Many nations are doing so.
Just going to ignore all that?
And finally, I AM PROUD TO SERVE MY COUNTRY. AND I WILL ANSWER THE CALL WHEN THE TIME COMES. Even though I nor my nation had anything to do with the shit storm that is landing on our front step. Also while Americans themselves, who got us to this point, are being trampled on and not standing up for what is right. So yeah, if you guys did anything whatsoever, we wouldn’t be here. He was voted out ffs.
Back over to your strawman. But before you start again, let’s not forget letting that little J6 thing completely slide by without any consequence… what a joke.
I understand your frustration, but take a moment to remember you are where you are because you didn’t vote in numbers.
People overseas are threatened by this without having a choice in that. So yeah, they may have to defend themselves against your military because you are too lazy to vote as a collective.
You fail to understand that this wasn’t an attack on you, but commentary about the state of things and how they look from the inside rather than the outside.
And as someone who did enlist, I’m gonna just point out something. Your country should never have allowed allyship with the USA to divest you of a fighting force worthy of protecting your own assets, borders, or sovereignty.
I absolutely don’t agree that the US should be fucking about in any other country. But the entire world never even batted an eye when we were setting up puppet regimes and destabilizing whole countries where brown people live. So you’ll figure me if our problematic behavior has finally landed on your doorstep. I don’t agree with the shit we’ve done in South America, The Middle East, or half a dozen African countries.
But I also grew up in poverty and found my way out of that through enlistment, so I was part of the problem whether I wanted to be or not.
I am trying to have empathy for you and people like you while pointing out that our government is literally kidnapping people off the street and essentially using FLOK cameras as legal wiretaps. The people who are doing something need help to boost the signal and people are ignoring them.
There is something your citizenry could do, but unfortunately they lack the unity to do it nor can most of them put up with the hardship it would entail. The size of the nation in terms of distance isn’t a problem, smaller populations with just as much distance have successfully protested in unity. It’s unity itself and the inability to put up with hardship.
That is to stop work, stop buying anything you can, grind the means of production to a halt. Yeah, people would lose jobs they don’t want, healthcare which is inadequate anyway and housing that will still be available once the goal is achieved, which is to force the houses to act on impeachment and whatever amendments and institutional rules exist to remove this administration.
Violence or inciting violence is not the answer and I think I’d be preaching to the converted on this one, you said you were an ex serviceman. Sure, all your citizens should have on hand whatever means they can to defend themselves (as is their constitutional right) but you know as well as I do where that will end up.
The easiest method to stop this is voting; in every election where the position requires election from the people, you’re there. You tell your employer you will be before you take a new job, it’s that important. That’s why the Republicans are where they are, because their people vote. It might be the only redeeming quality they have.
That one’s done now though. The next easiest is what I suggested above and it has to be done, or you’re done because I can’t see a fair midterm happening. They have to be removed. It’ll work if enough stop.
There’s a lot of armed people here willing to fight, but without some kind of organized call-to-arms (whether it be militias or state national guard), all that’s gonna happen is you’re going to be arrested and given a 20+ year prison sentence for assault on a federal officer with a deadly weapon. It’s easy to say you’d fight back, but a lot of us have families to provide for and can’t just throw away our lives like that.
Right now, we’re lacking leadership, and most democrats in power don’t have the balls to openly call for resistance. I don’t know what the future holds, but I feel we’re nearing a breaking point where we might start seeing armed resistance.
You are clearly not wrong. However, the question I would return with: if not violence, what mechanism for change will actually move a lever?
I’m certainly at my most pessimistic moment, but sincerely I don’t see how this changes for your countrymen at this point without violence…? What realistic compromise could we even draw up? The two sides are diametrically opposed. There isn’t common ground because there isn’t even a common reality. The legal system seems righed and there is no leadership. You have touched on some of these points yourself.
I’ll take a try at what a compromise might look like:
– Trump agrees to go door to door with Minnesota Police. This gurantees:
- The process is done slowly and unchaotically. This is what MN wants.
- Every single address is searched and the potential for immigrant removal is near 100%. This is what Trump wants.
This solution would save lives, but also give up significant civil liberties. It’s the best I can think up. Hopefully you are more creative than I am.
My last comment: I too have a family. And many extended family. And friends across Canada. It is on behalf of these people that I’m so passionate. And I can also appreciate your concerns also because of these same people. These are two sides of the same coin.
The problem is that you’re screaming a lot but not offering actual solutions except a general idea of “Fight!”. That’s not helpful, and it sounds a lot like condescension.
None of this stopped USians from endlessly writing on Reddit for the past four years that Russians should’ve overthrown Putin, and I didn’t see them helping plan a revolution.
I have tried to explain to Americans here and on reddit and other places too that the political landscape in Russia is very different and that what we think is possible is all passes through the lens of our own government and country. But people are gonna people.
For what it’s worth, I don’t agree with those people whole sale either. I recognize that what they’re asking the Russian populace to do is tantamount to a death or slavery sentence.
In case it wasn’t obvious, you have to be pretty fucking stupid to install surveillance in your own house linked to tech corporations, with your own money, while generating a profit for them.
Don’t buy anything from Amazon.
I think I want to print out a letter and put it in everyone’s home in my neighborhood with one of these. To at least let them know who they’re helping. I’d bet a vast majority have no idea.
As far as I can tell it’s still voluntary. This is their policy. It sounds like if you choose to share photos or video with public safety organizations, that now Flock and hence ICE can access it.
That all said, fuck Flock and I certainly don’t want anything I share (which I never have) to contribute to the profits of a private surveillance company. The solution here appears to be share nothing with public safety at all ever so that contract is worth nothing.
inaccessible image of text
Do commenters know they can copy text instead of break web accessibility?
From the article
The partnership, announced in October 2025, integrates Ring’s Community Requests feature directly into Flock’s law-enforcement platforms, FlockOS and Flock Nova, allowing police departments to request Ring camera footage through Ring’s Neighbors app.
Ring Community Requests feature
Community Requests
What is Community Requests?
Community Requests is a privacy-protected service that enables public safety agencies to put out public requests for help and efficiently and securely collect and manage digital evidence. Public safety agencies can post a request in the Neighbors feed asking community members within a specific area to share Ring video footage or information that may help their investigation. Videos customers choose to share in response to Community Requests go directly to Axon Evidence, a secure evidence management system where they can be verified for authenticity and integrity. This also creates a complete audit trail of how and when public safety agencies collect information.
Participation is always voluntary, and public safety agencies can only see what you choose to share.
The owner chooses what to share in response to a request. Just like IRL when the police knock on an owner’s door to request information.
Looks like you didn’t read the whole article.
The owner chooses what to share in response to a request. Just like IRL when the police knock on an owner’s door to request information.
Yes, through this program you are technically correct that the user has to press a button to send the video to law enforcement through this specific program.
This implies that the user has the ability to refuse to send the video to law enforcement, but that is not true.
The videos are stored on Flock/Amazon’s servers and that means that the police can, via a subpoena or court order, access the footage or real-time video from any device or storage that the business can access. You have zero say in this and cannot opt out, the case law on requesting ‘business records’ is long settled as is the idea that digital files are considered ‘business records’.
In addition, this program does not preclude Flock/Amazon from voluntarily providing access to anybody or any group that asks/pays. The data is theirs, not yours.
This program is whitewashing the creation of a nation-wide real-time video surveillance network, paid for by you or via your tax dollars.
Do commenters know they can copy text instead of break web accessibility?
Broken as intended on the Ring website. Couldn’t copy/paste text. Would’ve forced the issue were I on desktop at the time.
I window how they define “Public safety agencies” since other programs refer to “Justice and Public Safety agencies”. Is this difference an oversight or is something being excluded?
It doesn’t matter, nobody would have a cause of action to challenge their interpretation if they decided that it meant any HOA or self-declared neighborhood watch.
In the end they are giving the data that they own to who they choose. The fact that it came from a device that you chose to bolt on the side of your house doesn’t mean anything in this transaction. The data instantly becomes theirs by virtue of the TOS (that you read, right?) that you agreed to when you signed up for the service and you have no say in what someone else does with their data.
These kinds of programs are just whitewashing, it makes it look like there are significant barriers in place to prevent your data from being used to enable a nationwide real-time surveillance network. There are not.
Flock could start charging a subscription fee for access to their video feeds tomorrow and it would be within their rights as owners of that data. The reason that they create these ‘programs’ is because it creates the impression that the user has control of ‘their’ data.
Nice of them to completely undermine what “public safety” means for the 326,774,980th time.
Ditch your internet connected shit and boycott these companies
This really highlights how important it is for people to understand what they’re opting into with smart devices. Transparency and informed choice matter more than ever.
the contracts/terms/etc don’t even matter… they can change them at any time, without prior notice. stop buying stuff, plain and simple.
Ah, the ol’ fascist switcheroo
Are any brands decent? Unfortunately my door doesn’t have a peep hole so I need a camera.
Make the hole
Frosted glass door.
Just a bigger hole
You know you can install one pretty easily, right?
Its a frosted glass door.
It’s probably still possible.
I have an Aqara doorbell camera thats been really nice
I am not 100% sure about their privacy but the camera can record local as well as to iCloud when used with HomeKit
My IoT approach for the last 7 years has been HomeKit or DIY and I have not been disappointed too much
