Ring was ALWAYS a mass surveillance tool.
this post was submitted on 23 Jan 2026
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Privacy
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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.
This post is fantastic for 2 reasons:
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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
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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.
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So many modern technologies would be incredibly cool if they weren't operated by untrustworthy people.
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.
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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.
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Gonna send this to my MIL so I don't have to come to family gatherings anymore
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.
And you know what they want to see?
Ballsacks and butt holes. Ding-dong motherfuckers.
dang, the mass surveillance device disguised as convenience strikes again! and of course a majority are also paying via subscription for even more “convenience”
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.
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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.
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.
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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.
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.
Thanks for the info
Reolink will give you cloud access but has local storage and good privacy history
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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.
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.
You just made my day, I can ditch my remaining Nest cam!
I had a stalker, so I have had one I have not replaced. Any suggestions for something inexpensive and easy to set up? UK based.
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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..
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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.
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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.
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Good thing my Mom, my older sibling Jeb and I don't even use that Ring camera. Seriously!
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.
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.
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Yep almost all of these things are super sketch
My doorbell doesn't even work, let alone record anything. It works for me real well as a decoy for a working doorbell.
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