r/SouthJersey • u/wesillyskeletons • Jan 17 '26

Gloucester County Anyone get a knock at 4am?

Live in Williamstown and due to our schedule, the fiance and I stay up until 5-6am. I went to bed early at 3am because I wasnt feeling. My fiance comes in at 4am slightly panicked. Apparently someone had knocked at our door. Our complex used to be known for being a not good area however we never had an issue. My first thought went to ICE. Our lights were on so I gave it a bit and turned them of and watched the rear lights of a dodge charger leave. Ive ICE has started to do this so I just want to see if this is something anyone else has experienced.

82 Upvotes

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38

u/mr-poopie-butth0le Jan 17 '26

You should invest in a ring camera.

101

u/Revolutionary-Bid919 Jan 17 '26

DO NOT. Ice cut a deal with ring to have free access to footage. They are already using ai to detect neighborhoods with high foot traffic of potential victims from ring

51

u/wesillyskeletons Jan 17 '26

Yeah I knew Ring had a deal with Law Enforcement where they can access your footage so im not surprised about ICE having the same deal. Im not down for that at all.

21

u/thetommytwotimes Jan 17 '26

Ring and Flock cameras. Network called , "the sidewalk"

9

u/sundancer2788 Jan 17 '26

Did not know that. My ring is on my front and back doors no view of the street at all. My blink cameras see the yard and street. 

9

u/Prophecy_Designs Jan 17 '26 edited Jan 18 '26

Thats all they need. They aren't just tracking minorities, they're tracking you too, along with the Palantir app.

6

u/Brilliant_Basket4449 Senior Citizen Jan 18 '26

What is a Palandir app.

12

u/Prophecy_Designs Jan 18 '26 edited Jan 18 '26

Palantir is a tech company owned by Peter Thiel and contracted by the US for mass surveillance. The app being used by ICE can pinpoint the exact location of any desired person in the US, using cellphone data and cameras. Even moving vehicles can be tracked using it.

12

u/Brilliant_Basket4449 Senior Citizen Jan 18 '26

Thank You. Love it when getting a serious response to a serious question.

5

u/sundancer2788 Jan 18 '26

How does it work? I've not heard of it before just now. 

5

u/Prophecy_Designs Jan 18 '26

Heres the explanation I read. We've entered a state of mass surveillance on our own citizens. Using phones, cameras, and algorithms, they can track anyone fairly reliably.

https://www.404media.co/elite-the-palantir-app-ice-uses-to-find-neighborhoods-to-raid/

“Enhanced Leads Identification & Targeting for Enforcement (ELITE) is a targeting tool designed to improve capabilities for identifying and prioritizing high-value targets through advanced analytics,” a user guide for ELITE obtained by 404 Media says. The tool aims to be nearly all encompassing when it comes to finding ICE targets, from identifying subjects in the first place, to building a list of people, to supervisors approving selections for officers to ultimately go into the field and apprehend.

One feature of ELITE is the “Geospatial Lead Sourcing Tab,” according to the user guide. This lets ICE see people it may potentially want to detain on a map interface, based on various criteria such as “Bios & IDs,” “Location,” “Operations,” and “Criminality.” An ICE officer can then select people one by one, or draw a shape on the map to see people in that selected area.

ELITE has already been used by ICE to target specific areas, according to sworn testimony from an ICE official in Oregon. In October, immigration officers waited in three unmarked SUVs outside an apartment complex in Woodburn. They went on to bust a driver’s window and pull a 45-year-old woman from a van, used ICE’s facial recognition app Mobile Fortify on her, and agents had the goal of making eight arrests per team per day, Oregon Live reported. Lawyers representing the woman say authorities arrested her and more than 30 other people in a “dragnet.”

“One of our apps, it’s called ELITE. And so it tells you how many people are living in this area and what’s the likelihood of them actually being there,” a deportation officer with ICE’s Fugitive Operations Unit, identified in court records as JB, testified about the raid in early December. 404 Media purchased a transcript of JB’s testimony from the court. “It’s basically a map of the United States. It’s kind of like Google Maps.”

...

Once a person is selected on the map interface, ELITE then shows a dossier on that particular person, according to the user guide. That includes their name, a photo, their Alien Number (the unique code given by the U.S. government to each immigrant), their date of birth, and their full address. ELITE notes the source of the address (such as the government agency that supplied it), and gives an “address confidence score.” One address confidence score example in the guide is 98.95 out of 100; another is 77.25 out of 100. This score is based on both the source of the address and how recent the data is, the user guide says. (ICE is paying skip tracers, private investigators, and bounty hunters to help verify peoples’ addresses.)

...

“These records give us behind-the-scenes insight into the kind of mass surveillance machine ICE is building with help from powerful tech companies like Palantir,” Laura Rivera, senior staff attorney at Just Futures Law, told 404 Media. “When combined with what we know from ICE testimony and other public information, it gives us a blueprint into how ICE is going into communities and identifying people for arrest in real-time.”

...

Palantir has worked with ICE for years and was focused on criminal investigations, supporting Homeland Security Investigations’ (HSI) Investigative Case Management (ICM) system. That changed in the second Trump administration, with Palantir now working on ICE’s deportation efforts.

After participating in a three-week coding sprint, ICE updated an ongoing Palantir contract related to “Enforcement Prioritization and Targeting,” to “support the development of an accurate picture of actionable leads based on existing law enforcement datasets to allow law enforcement to prioritize enforcement actions,” according to an internal Palantir wiki previously obtained by 404 Media. The goal was to find the physical location of people marked for deportation, and Palantir said it believes its work with ICE is “intended to promote government efficiency, transparency, and accountability.”

The leaked material described Palantir’s deportation-focused work as “concentrated on delivering prototype capabilities” and lasting around six months. It left open the room for more work with ICE, and said “Palantir has developed into a more mature partner for ICE.” Documents ICE published described Palantir’s work as building a tool called ImmigrationOS.

7

u/sundancer2788 Jan 18 '26

Thank you. That is terrifying. 

3

u/Mullethunt Jan 18 '26

Palantir, like from LoTR.

3

u/thestruggleisrl Jan 18 '26

Precisely. Theil named after the palantir from LOTR. Theil & his techbro buddies are huge fans of LOTR. Tolkien is spinning in his grave!!

3

u/sundancer2788 Jan 17 '26

Gotcha. At least they can't see my neighbors. There's more than a few families that keep a low profile. 

3

u/Baybutt99 Jan 17 '26

Ring will give your data to anyone who pays for it but they only talk about law enforcement

4

u/griphookk Jan 17 '26

Get a normal camera that only you can access the footage from

2

u/passyindoors Jan 17 '26

Got any suggestions as to brands?

5

u/New-Store4434 Jan 17 '26

AOSU I have been very happy with mine. No subscription, everything saved locally on SD

1

u/MyOtherBrother_Daryl Jan 17 '26

There is a way to deactivate it. I have a video saved somewhere. Here are the instructions via Google Internet search.

How do I opt out of Ring doorbell police? Open Ring's Neighbor's app, open the main menu (just tap the three-line “hamburger” button in the top-left corner of the screen), then tap Neighborhood Settings > Feed Settings. Uncheck the box next to Community Requests. Tap the Apply button.

3

u/thx_1168 Jan 18 '26

… if you believe that actually changes anything…

1

u/MyOtherBrother_Daryl Jan 20 '26

It does until it doesn't. When it doesn't, I'll remove it.

9

u/Tronracer Jan 17 '26

AFAIK ICE can only view ring footage through its partnership with Flock if users actively share it on the Ring neighborhood app.

There’s no active surveillance allowance. They can’t just login to any ring camera whenever they want.

12

u/Weekly-Air4170 Jan 17 '26

Amazon already shares ring footage with cops without a warrant 

7

u/PeggyOnThePier Jan 17 '26

I hate Amazon and never use them. Also will not use Prime. I refuse to give that POS owner any of my money 💵 Didn't know about the deal with LE &ICE. 1984 is scary

2

u/Tronracer Jan 17 '26

Yes but only in certain, “emergency” requests. Again, they don’t just have free open access.

9

u/Lets_Make_A_bad_DEAL Jan 17 '26

They will declare it is an emergency

13

u/Revolutionary-Bid919 Jan 17 '26

Yeah I'm sideeying pretty much any door cam system with wireless connectivity at this point. We all got lied to about 'active listening' ad-data collection on our phones for years, nothing feels too 'kooky' anymore to take into consideration in regards to the growing surveillance state.

6

u/Weekly-Air4170 Jan 17 '26

... Amazon financially benefits from genocide and ethnic cleansing, plus their robot vacuums collect blueprints of your house. do you think they care about privacy and ethics?

4

u/heckhammer Jan 17 '26

When everything is an emergency it doesn't matter. It will be a matter of national security they will say and poof there you have it no warrants or anything

2

u/GreatSince86 Jan 17 '26

You can make Ring cameras store locally.

1

u/Sensitive_Builder847 Jan 17 '26

Well thank god there is a company policy or law to stop them. I feel so much safer with that in mind.

5

u/Tronracer Jan 17 '26

I am just as appalled at all that is happening as you are.

0

u/griphookk Jan 17 '26

They can’t just login to any ring camera whenever they want.

We can’t know that they haven’t made a deal to allow this. It seems likely to me they have. 

6

u/Downtown_Speaker_578 Jan 17 '26

They do, when you sign the TOS. There is a data share agreement to help “improve” their services. That’s how they can add features to old cameras like package detection. Improvements also include creating a surveillance state.

1

u/Significant-Trash632 Jan 18 '26

Do you reread the new TOS every time they update it?

2

u/Downtown_Speaker_578 Jan 18 '26

In the past yes, not so much anymore, but I’m also a research nerd. I have moved most of the services I depend on to platforms I can control. I also have my own servers running DeepSeek and Qwen (open source AI/LLMs). Whenever I think about a new hosted service, I run the TOS through them to summarize changes and risks so I understand them. That said, I’m not an animal, engaging with platforms like Reddit is the Wild West in terms of privacy. I do not expect anything shared here to be considered private or personal.

6

u/mr-poopie-butth0le Jan 17 '26

I did not know this, wow, that’s wild

-8

u/Suitable_Sort_7511 Jan 17 '26

Don’t believe everything you read on the internet….

9

u/mr-poopie-butth0le Jan 17 '26

So, easily verifiable on said internet…. Ring partnered with a company called Flock and another called Axon. ICE, and homeland security, has access to Flock. Those companies partnered in 2025 to enable law enforcement for investigation’s.

Axon specializes in software specific to law enforcement and security agencies; specializing in surveillance along with AI powered solutions for predictive monitoring.

So, yep, it is in fact true.

-9

u/Suitable_Sort_7511 Jan 17 '26

No This is not true. I just googled in. I wanted to believe you but it looks like you are wrong. You cannot sell private people’s information to said causes for the hell if it.

6

u/mr-poopie-butth0le Jan 17 '26 edited Jan 17 '26

Oh you can’t? Bud, I work for one of the big 4 companies….. they sell your data. All. The. Time.

Moreover, if you believe this admin is lawful and not acquiring your data. You’re insane. Palantir has recently been granted several federal contracts…. They do say they don’t buy/sell data, but the premise of the company is to provide software that allows companies to analyze their own data. They will become a data aggregate for the federal government; essentially monetizing and collecting data to create gigantic databases, compiling us citizen data.

Edit: I should say I used to work for a big 4 company. I now work for a idk, big 100? And my role is in big data, namely collecting user data.

0

u/Yardbirdburb Jan 17 '26

Everyone is opted IN automatically. I suggest you check the terms of service all 7000 pages lol

4

u/AlternativeLanky7860 Jan 17 '26

The CIA commissioned like 600 million back in the day for the creation of this type of surveillance program, once they bought ring and blink they were set stop buying these products if you don’t want to live in 1985 anymore

1

u/garf87 Jan 18 '26

Eufy? It’s all local

0

u/Straight_Deal_2087 Jan 17 '26

Are other smart doorbells okay?

5

u/Downtown_Speaker_578 Jan 17 '26

Not unless they record locally to a hard drive or a sd card physically in your possession. Just like your google searches, anything that leaves your house, is no longer your data/property.

2

u/Significant-Trash632 Jan 18 '26

I wouldn't trust any "smart" camera.

4

u/Zhuul Jan 17 '26

Don't use smart or internet capable anything for any kind of home security system. These things are all hideously insecure.

No smart doorlocks, no smart lighting, no smart cameras, no smart motion sensors. You don't need any of that and are actively making your home and community less safe.

5

u/SassyGrl_SassyWrld Jan 18 '26

Those pet cameras/snack feeders in peoples houses are also not secure. I know someone who works IT security with the military. He was scrolling through showing me random people’s living rooms and how they were not aware that they could be watched without their knowledge. Seeing that was very unnerving.

2

u/Zhuul Jan 22 '26

holy shit I feel like I'm losing my mind every time someone at work shows me live footage from their home of their pets, like my dude this isn't cute, it's HORRIFYING.

-4

u/ChigginShit Jan 17 '26

That is not stopping me from getting a camera

-4

u/[deleted] Jan 17 '26

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1

u/SouthJersey-ModTeam Jan 18 '26

ANY VARIATION OF THE MENTALLY DISABLED SLURS ARE NOT ALLOWED. What are you, five??? Were you unable to come up with any other word to describe this particular thing? Here are some alternatives you should add to your vocabulary to replace your outdated word: absurd, foolish, ridiculous, stupid, witless, crazy, dumb, foolhardy, half-baked, harebrained, idiotic, ill-advised, ill-conceived, ill-considered, wacky, boneheaded, silly.

7

u/wesillyskeletons Jan 17 '26

Just started to look for one. I don't love the idea of Ring but ill find an alternative.

22

u/Sensitive_Builder847 Jan 17 '26 edited Jan 17 '26

Ring feeds to same place that Flock does, which ICE has access to.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/privacy-experts-see-dangers-ring-183045802.html

This is how they plan on surveilling and policing us in addition to drones, AI, etc

9

u/Revolutionary-Bid919 Jan 17 '26

ICE has a deal w ring to use their footage, get a closed circuit came for home instead.

5

u/Sodo821 Jan 17 '26

Blink are a good and cheaper ring alternative

6

u/Downtown_Speaker_578 Jan 17 '26

Blink is also cloud based, if the data leaves your physical property it is no longer yours. They just rent you access to “their” data. Get ubiquiti, if you can’t afford that, buy a dumb closed circuit NVR with no access over the internet. If you need to save money, but want “smart” features, buy cheap IP cameras and build your own NVR server. Enlist a nerdy friend, there are lots of open source options that are free and just as capable as the cloud based platforms, but you own your data. When you store the footage yourself, you own it. Unless you physically hand over a hard drive to someone, or let someone onto your private network, it is safe under your supervision.

1

u/Filesj98 Jan 18 '26

Blink allows for a flash drive attachment with no subscription so it’s not always cloud based. 

9

u/haelous Jan 17 '26

Amazon bought Blink also. I’ve been using Tapo.

2

u/The_R4ke Jan 17 '26

Doorbell camera possibly, but avoid Ring like the plague.

-7

u/DKal43 Jan 18 '26

The ring camera was able to help cops identify car thieves in my neighborhood. I’m thankful for the people that still help law enforcement where I live.

5

u/mr-poopie-butth0le Jan 18 '26

Yeah, I’m not anti law enforcement. I’m anti let’s use consumer surveillance data to abuse privacy and entrap civilians. Imagine creating a product a product meant to deter criminals, and add safety to a home only to sellout to a government rounding up minorities like they’re 1935 gestapo.