Don’t Buy Ring Or Other Home
Surveillance Devices For Anyone, Ever
The Federalist,
by
Libby Emmons
Original Article
Posted By: earlybird,
12/23/2019 8:35:41 AM
Looking for last-minute presents? Don’t buy Amazon’s Ring home camera system. Easily hackable, super creepy, and massively Orwellian, Ring and other home surveillance tech give you the illusion of protection while stealing your privacy and autonomy. Ring isn’t the only device to have been hacked. Nest, Alexa, and baby monitors are just a few of the home devices that have bad actors have hacked and manipulated.
A perv recently used a Ring camera to gain access to an eight-year-old girl’s bedroom. Her parents had installed the device to keep tabs on her. Through the camera, a truly disgusting man can be heard to say: “I’m your best friend, I’m Santa Claus.”
Reply 1 - Posted by:
zephyrgirl 12/23/2019 8:50:30 AM (No. 269719)
I see no need for cameras inside a house. External cameras yes, but unless there is someone with medical issues who has to be watched, internal cameras are probably unnecessary.
18 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
Dodge Boy 12/23/2019 8:53:55 AM (No. 269723)
We have a Ring video door bell and have had no problems at all and are quite happy with it. Having read Lib Emmons piece, I wondered about the parents who found it necessary to spy on their own daughter with one of these. However, I am concerned about the security of Alexa. We have the Echo Dot model. The mic is hot 24/7 and it will receive any and all conversations.
8 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
Urgent Fury 12/23/2019 9:07:13 AM (No. 269737)
No Google spy devices in the Fury house.
27 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
ROLFNader 12/23/2019 9:17:57 AM (No. 269750)
My kids bought me an Alexa for Christmas last year. It's sitting right here on the table, unplugged. I use it only to play music once in a great while or for making a shopping list that gets uploaded to my cellphone( as I'm WAY less likely to forget or lose that, compared to a piece of paper. During its 98% of time off, it makes an OK unlit candle stand.
5 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
Lucky5 12/23/2019 9:22:37 AM (No. 269759)
I have been saying this for decades. I am appalled at how easily people are giving away their right to privacy. I spent hours turning off all the tracking and uninstalling apps on my android system phone. I work in tech and let me tell you it took me a lot of work to find everything they were doing by default and many apps spy on you and sell your info to ad agencies and who knows who else? We bought a new TV. They are all "smart" TV's now. Once again I had to dig around to find the privacy sections and turn off Samsungs reporting, listening, watching, recording and following what we watch and who knows what else. This was not an easily found section either. Spend the time, do not buy these listening devices or cameras, protect your privacy!
32 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
padiva 12/23/2019 9:25:03 AM (No. 269765)
I even keep the cameras on my devices covered.
15 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
jacksin5 12/23/2019 9:52:11 AM (No. 269799)
I keep a dog, and a gun. I feel quite secure.
30 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
Safari Man 12/23/2019 10:00:33 AM (No. 269811)
I love my Wyze cams. They are for outside perimiter, but I do have one for indoor when I am away (its turned off when I am in Florida). I spend about 50/50 in Texas and Florida. Its very nice to be able to monitor things when I am away. Wyze cams are so inexpensive that I have one monitoring my pump house so I can know if all the equipment is coming on/off when I expect it and what sounds it makes (as well as monitoring the salt delivery man). I have discovered serval problems recently and fixed them before it got too bad. I even got to watch some of Hurricane Michael tearing off my roof (before the power went out).
7 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
Strike3 12/23/2019 10:01:29 AM (No. 269815)
People buy this whiz-bang stuff for themselves and their kids without understanding how the technology behind it works. Most wireless routers are password protected these days but your older ones may not be. If you turn on all the right settings to allow everything in your house to communicate, chances are that somebody within range of your house can see your devices and it takes very little work to gain access if the security is not set correctly. You can be sure that the default settings from the manufacturer are set wide open. I have a Ring camera set up right beside my front door as a deterrant but it has no batteries. If you pay a monthly fee for security service then you can be assured that your data is being collected on somebody's cloud. The safe way is to use wired cameras and do not allow them to send anything to anybody. Your internet is bad enough if you don't shut all reporting off in every browser. You know you are being watched when you start receiving ads for something on which you recently did a search. Don't use Google. Let Alexa and Echo find somebody else to converse with. Not in my house.
9 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
HotRod 12/23/2019 10:10:03 AM (No. 269832)
Now that Amazon has acquired Ring, it will be increasing integrated into their other spy devices. I don't buy anything that must store data in the ''Cloud'' where I have no control over it, and don't know who does!
15 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
bighambone 12/23/2019 10:14:24 AM (No. 269839)
Ring spotlight and door bell cameras outside the house are no problem, but inside the house could become a big problem. In that respect, I only turn my inside the house ring camera on when my wife and I am gone from the house for an extended period. Otherwise it is turned off, covered up, and unplugged. Look for ring to come up with new software with enhanced security features in the near future.
7 people like this.
There are numerous instances of all of these kinds of devices getting hacked. I don't have any need to have the newest and best tech junk.
On a similar note, I got a used laptop from a guy a few years ago, came complete with a piece of ducttape over the webcam.
6 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
spacer 12/23/2019 10:47:21 AM (No. 269877)
Americans letting a device with remote control abilities, watch their most private activities is a natural step in the loss personal rights. Ever since W Bush gave the sub human muslim the control over our personal safety at air ports, where grandma and 10 year old little girls get felt up by the State, it was inevitable.
9 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
JHHolliday 12/23/2019 1:11:36 PM (No. 269976)
Same as #2, I got an Echo Dot and use it to play a little music from time to time. Other than that, it stays unplugged. I am pretty tech-savvy for an old guy and have most of my internet-connected stuff secure. It's not hard to do.....Startpage, Duckduckgo, Privacy Badger, etc. There are ways to keep your privacy limited. Never use Google. They will track you like a bloodhound. Keep a trash email account for those places you have to provide an email address. Your wifi router should have a good password and use an ad blocker to cut down on the ads that get through. At my age I am certainly not up to anything nefarious (sigh), I just don't like to be tracked. Another note....every time you use a credit card, they know what you buy and sell that info to corporations who use it for marketing. Not much we can do about that....we do have to give up a lot for convenience.
4 people like this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
Smart11344 12/23/2019 1:18:29 PM (No. 269982)
I completely stay away from products such as Ring, Alexa and any other similar products. I consider them a clear and very present danger. Telling my tv remote control to change channels tells me we have a bunch of lazy, stupid people living, especially in the good old U.S.A. God help us.
7 people like this.
Reply 16 - Posted by:
Luandir 12/23/2019 1:21:59 PM (No. 269984)
Our Ring doorbell just plain didn't work, after two professional attempts at installation. The company promised to send us a replacement, but no such ever arrived. That's our experience.
2 people like this.
Reply 17 - Posted by:
joew9 12/23/2019 3:00:27 PM (No. 270020)
I don't care for the cloud type IP cameras. I like peer to peer IP cameras such as Foscam. You need the skill to set up your ISP router firewall to allow outside access to your cameras. And use unique passwords. But unless the original manufacturer left a secret backdoor your cameras are unlikely to be hacked. Might could hack them at my local Wi-Fi but rather than do that just walk into the backyard and look at the pool in real life.
1 person likes this.
Reply 18 - Posted by:
RuckusTom 12/23/2019 5:27:14 PM (No. 270090)
There's a pretty good business opportunity for an enterprising phone / cable / internet / security company to provide secure camera's outside of homes and stream them on line so everyone in a neighborhood can log in and see what's going on for an on line "neighborhood watch".
0 people like this.
Reply 19 - Posted by:
cor-vet 12/23/2019 5:51:27 PM (No. 270111)
I have wanted a new model flat screen (actually curved) for a while, because the picture on yhe new TV's is so much betyer thsn the picture on our 12 year old flat screen. We've been putting it off, because we only watch about 10 to 15 hours a week, and with programming getting worse, that number might go down. I surely don't need a fancy new smart TV to spy on me, so between the spying and the limited watching, there will probably not be a new Smart TV in this house. When Apple/MAC upgraded the 'puter a while back, they put in something called SIRI. I consider anything listening to what we say, 24/7 is a spy. Like Alexia and the rest, not in my house. A voice remote came in the mail today, from Dish, and will remain in its box. I'm 77 and I can still push a button or two on a remote, to change channels, plus it's affiliated with 'google', so that's the kiss of death out of the box.
1 person likes this.
Reply 20 - Posted by:
ussjimmycarter 12/24/2019 12:56:33 AM (No. 270235)
Do you have a piece of opaque tape over the camera on your PC or MAC? If you don't, you aren't being smart! No "smart device" that I can use to turn on lights will ever be allowed in my house. I get up and switch on the "switch"... Boy that was so hard I almost didn't make it back to my chair!
1 person likes this.
Reply 21 - Posted by:
anonymous 12/24/2019 5:45:12 AM (No. 270276)
Cameras inside a home? I think that goes far too far. I wouldn't want to live in a home like that knowing my every step can be monitored by another family member or a hacker. I can understand why some parents would want to monitor their children but why can't they just step across the hallway to check up on them? Children should never be left home alone.
0 people like this.
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Comments:
We were recently asked to provide all of our contact info - email, cell phone and skype (which we don’t use) - for a distant relative who was being given an Echo for Christmas. We declined.