Amazon releases Ring videos without consent. Should you care?

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PUBLIC DEFENDER By Brian Livingston Giant retailer Amazon.com, the parent company of Ring video and audio doorbells and other devices, admits in a let
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Fred, fisher75, oldfry, Casey S, lmacri, Rick Corbett, Alex5723

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An excellent article, particularly the information about alternatives to the ubiquitous ‘Ring’ video doorbells and how/why they differ.

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wavy

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This article is exactly why I purchased the Eufy Video Doorbell!!  I live in a Senior Living Apartment now, but enjoyed my Eufy for about 3 years and found it lived up to everything they promised and with NO monthly fees!  I recommend it highly!

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wavy

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This was a great article.  I don’t currently have a doorbell camera, and I’m not really sure how I feel about them.  But we do have Ring’s alarm system, which we’ve been very happy with.  One thing that jumped out at me was your quote about Ring Alarm’s Pro version, where you said “But the cost is an outrageous $20 per month per location.”  If you’re getting it just to store video locally, you’d have a fair point.  But that $20 per month (or $200 per year) is for their full-blown alarm monitoring service, which includes video storage from ALL your Ring cameras–doorbell and otherwise, and professional remote monitoring of your Ring Alarm (fire and burglar), in addition to the local storage option.  One of my pandemic projects was replacing our ADT alarm with Ring and once it was in I never looked back.  The $20 per month you’re quoting is more properly compared to ADT’s or Brinks’ or whoever’s $70 per month for monitoring.  $20 per month “just” to store videos locally is one thing, but in this case storing videos locally is just gravy included with another service–a service that is incredibly reasonable compared to the big-name competition.

Thanks for another great article.  I always learn something from this newsletter!

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Since I do not use Amazon for my security apps, I don’t have to worry about Ring. I am a Vivint user and very pleased with their service.

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August 1, 2022

About four years ago I installed two Ring wired security cameras at my house, one at the driveway and the other overlooking the deck. I had to purchase and install several of the cameras before finding two that worked. They worked reasonably well until about four months ago. I installed a new Deco mesh wifi system, replacing my ASUS router. (There was no problem with the ASUS router; I replaced it for better coverage throughout my house.) After changing wifi systems, I could not log on to either of the two Ring cameras.

I finally gave up with the Ring systems. I purchased two Eufy Security Floodlight Cam 2 Pro cameras. Before installation I connected them to the Deco wifi system very easily. Both cameras worked in my home office. Today my electrician installed both cameras, replacing the old Ring cameras. As soon at the power to the Eufy cameras was connected, they started working.

I have no intention of ever using a Ring product again.

I read the Ask Woody emails as soon as I receive them, and save them in Thunderbird. They always have something essential or interesting. I miss Fred Langa’s column.

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Myst, SueW

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I appreciate the research put into this article.  We’re a Ring+ household, with a combination of Ring and other products, some compatible, others not (with video et al captured locally).

With multiple Alexa-based devices in our home, I figure we’re already under 24×7 surveillance, so the Ring devices don’t increase any particular paranoia I possess in that regard. 😉

A warning, however, about the crime states in the article, which I believe are not relevant to the personal privacy/security theme, and are also are potentially misleading for at least some readers.

Like politics, all crime is local.  Crime *is* on the upswing – in many localities.  There’s quite a difference between a town in, say, rural Idaho, and NYC.  National, state, and in the case of large ones, even county-based statistics don’t provide useful information for a homeowner or property owner in a given neighborhood of a given city.  You’ve got to be informed, and rational about, the situation where you live or own property.

I also noted that many of the USAFacts data sets are only current through 2017, though some of the data sets extend farther.  Given the riots since 2020 (the violent ones, not the peaceful protests), we in or near major cities really need local crime data and recent trends to do useful analyses and make good decisions.  Sometimes that data is hard to get even from local authorities.

In the wake of the George Floyd-related and other violence around that same time, we decided to take the conservative route and acted as if we need more security, not knowing if that was truly the case.  Hopefully when the data sets through 2021 are released we’ll find out we were being overly cautious — for our area, anyway.

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