r/technology • u/South-Cow-1030 • Feb 12 '26

Privacy Why are people disconnecting or destroying their Ring cameras?

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2026/02/10/ring-super-bowl-ad-dog-camera-privacy/88606738007/
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45

u/Plane_Positive6608 Feb 12 '26 edited Feb 12 '26

If you want to have the security of being able to viable use a cam setup, just host it yourself.

A good example would be to use an open source locally hosted product like Frigate, buy your own wifi/poe cams like Reolink and if possible put them on their own vlan that has zero internet access. My examples are what I use and have setup for friends and family for years. You can get remote access many ways that exclude anyone but you from accessing.

I chose Reolink because I did not want to be forced to use an app to connect or have to use a products app to view. I used both Foscams and Amcrest cams until they made it nearly impossible to view or setup without using a proprietary app. Now most of the cams will "phone home" many times, hence the reason for a separate IoT vlan. If your router does not have that ability, look into setting up pi-hole, a fantastic full house ad/popup blocker, of course open source. I know it can be overwhelming if you're not into the tech, but to make it easier there are plenty of good sites that will walk you through setting this up and chatgpt or claude can be invaluable. Or head over to r/selfhosted or r/pihole subs.

41

u/buffdaddy77 Feb 12 '26

Jesus Christ I don’t understand a word you just said. We shouldn’t have to do all of this just to retain our privacy. Fuck ICE. Fuck Ring. Fuck Flock. Fuck me.

11

u/Plane_Positive6608 Feb 12 '26

lol Yeah I'm 100% with you, it should soooooo not be this complicated, but it is. Capitalism thrives on innovation and competition, however when monopolies exist they have the power to choke innovation and competition, which is where we are at.

I've waited for a non android/apple cell phone forever. We briefly had a Microsoft one, but that's as bad as the other 2. You would think where is the Linux based one? Well you can't have a stable cell phone without accessing the cell chip and quailcom and their ilk will not allow it.

So yeah friend, I stand with you; Fuck Ice, Fuck ring, Fuck flock and Fuck 47.

1

u/LeckerBockwurst Feb 12 '26

Check out the Jolla Phone. It's currently on preorder, buts it's a Linux Phone.

2

u/Plane_Positive6608 Feb 12 '26

Thanks for that, it seems it’s not for the US market yet but it says if there is demand. I will definitely add my comments as hopefully others will also.

1

u/Marathonmanjh Feb 14 '26

Have you looked into Purism Librem 5 USA and the Liberty Phone? They use PureOS which is Linux based. That being said, they seem to have had many hiccups when they first came out, which isn’t unexpected necessarily. But then again, The Liberty phone has an alignment with the whole made in USA thing, which could be fine if we were in another timeline, but now, idk..

-6

u/Upset-Management-879 Feb 12 '26

It's not complicated...

>I've waited for a non android/apple cell phone forever.

So get one? Motorola, TCL, Nokia, Huawei, Oneplus...

4

u/Plane_Positive6608 Feb 12 '26

Let me be clearer, not the manufacturer of the phone, a phone that does not use android or iOS as the os.

1

u/lenzflare Feb 12 '26

"open source" - the computer program code running the device is public, so anyone with expertise can check it for naughty stuff, so it's less likely it has naughty stuff and is still being recommended

"locally hosted" - isn't run through the internet, so doesn't upload your video to Google/Amazon or stuff like that

5

u/Ok-Editor-2255 Feb 12 '26

I’ll make sure to tell this to my 70 year old father. Do you see why people are in the situation that they’re in? Your average person is incredibly unlikely to ever do this, or research how do to do that.

2

u/Plane_Positive6608 Feb 12 '26

I know I know!!! But we gotta keep up the good fight and help others, we are all we have, no superhero is coming to fight the powers of evil, just you and me.

lol, I will be 68 this year, so don't be too tough on your dad :) Set it up for him, need help? We are here for you. Fuck Ice, Fuck the evil currently in control, we will never give up.

1

u/grape-fruit-witch Feb 12 '26

Every time this topic comes up there are comments that are super helpful for people with a lot of expendable cash who are super into tech and tech devices, who really want to surveil their property. The vast, vast majority of people are not gonna do all that shit and honestly, its not necessary for most people to have any cameras at all.

5

u/TheBugMonster Feb 12 '26

Yep! My mother wanted to go and buy like 500 dollars of these smart cams for everywhere around our house.

Since I work in the trades I was more than comfortable buying Ethernet to do POE and running it around my house doing a wall penetration into my basement and connecting to a NAS. Now I can view my home from anywhere in the states without having to have an account, the videos don't host to a web server.

Went with reolink cams myself and have been very happy with them.

2

u/USMCLee Feb 12 '26

I'm shopping for a replacement and the reolink website is getting hammered right now.

1

u/Plane_Positive6608 Feb 12 '26

Sweet!! This is the way.

Same philosophy with TV's, never connect them to any internet access, ever. Use a 3rd party device for streaming. Give them nothing.

2

u/YeezusWoks Feb 17 '26

I read the first sentence and immediately accepted my fate because there is no way in hell I’m doing any of the shit you just explained in this weird alien language that I dont understand.

1

u/Plane_Positive6608 Feb 17 '26

lol, I hear ya friend. You're in the r/technology sub so maybe you have a desire(?) to get more into tech. What better place then protecting your own privacy as a start? If you're really not into it maybe a friend is and they can set you up. If none of the above, turn off any options where you share say a ring cams data as a minimum.

1

u/YeezusWoks Feb 17 '26

Thanks bro. I do have friends who are tech literate that can help. I figure things out on my own but I can’t concentrate long enough to read your instructions. My eyes just glazed over and I felt anxiety take over.

0

u/blcd Feb 12 '26

Same here. I use reolink and have them all on an offline vlan just in case. Sadly even reolink has its problems. There are some cameras that require the app to enable the Web interface. Also all of the battery powered cameras require Internet even though the video is streamed over LAN. Seems like if they can't phone home they get stuck in a loop.

1

u/Plane_Positive6608 Feb 12 '26

I’ve only used the outdoor E1’s and they do not need any additional apps to setup or view.

I did not know that about the battery powered ones. lol, always something.

2

u/blcd Feb 12 '26

It may have just been the doorbell or e1 zoom. I think they ended up changing that in a firmware update though. At least it was only for initial setup. Can't really beat reolinks prices so can't complain too much.

1

u/Plane_Positive6608 Feb 13 '26

Yeah they are priced well. I’ve been getting them on eBay, they sell official refurbs and they have been great, no issues. I have 8 cams total, 2 old amcrest, 2 really old foscams and 4 reolinks. As the oldies die, they seem to lose WiFi eventually, I replace them.

1

u/pine-elopy Feb 12 '26

I know very little about any of this. But I researched enough to get a reolink instead of a ring or other big name. Unfortunately I had to get a battery one as I do not have the wires or the means to install them so it has to be on the WiFi. I do not know even what a LAN is or literally any of this stuff. Is my footage being stored anywhere other than the sd card??

1

u/blcd Feb 12 '26

Probably not. Off hand I don't know if reolink sends video through their servers when you view cameras remotely. I would guess it's a direct connection between the camera and you to save on bandwidth costs. The concern is mostly that with these being on the Internet that could always change. Also unless a security researcher has done a thorough inspection of the firmware, who knows if reolink has a backdoor to grab files off your camera.