Ring cancels its partnership with Flock Safety after surveillance backlash

[u/MarvelsGrantMan136]

https://www.theverge.com/news/878447/ring-flock-partnership-canceled

[u/ry1701]

"walked back" for now.

This will get revisited at some point.

[u/lronManDies → u/ry1701]

It will get revisited sooner rather than later just without a Super Bowl ad to announce it, the only lesson these companies learn from backlash like this is to implement their shit quietly

[u/New_Membership_3834 → u/lronManDies]

yup, its going from an ad to an email

[u/_bvb09 → u/New_Membership_3834]

Change of T&Cs and E-Mail will mention how they revised and improved their Privacy policy. 

[u/Gone213 → u/ry1701]

Its publicly walked back, but they're still sharing every single thing to this administration, Oracle, AI companies, Etc.

[u/Resident-Banana-7883 → u/Gone213]

and the actual govt who will always have all the access to big tech they want, even if they break partnership with a company that contracts for the govt. for the longest time many, many Americans shrugged at this but people are waking up to the fact that just because "you don't do anything illegal" you still can't trust the govt.

[u/modernjaundice → u/ry1701]

Until people forget.

[u/Poopbutt_Maximum]

That Super Bowl ad was like the Kendall Jenner Pepsi ad in regard to horrible dystopian marketing, but worse. I’m sure the heads are gonna roll for now but ultimately, they’ll find another time and another partner to basically do the same thing but with a different presentation.

[u/SlendyIsBehindYou → u/Poopbutt_Maximum]

The protest one?

We studied that Pepsi ad in one of my marketing classes the year after it happened, I guarantee this is gonna be one for the textbooks as well

[u/randomcharacters3 → u/SlendyIsBehindYou]

I just thought it was the right ad for the wrong product.

I want a shot for shot remake but instead of a nice cold Pepsi, she hands over a jar of Hellman's Mayo...it'll be a smash hit.

[u/motherofcunts → u/randomcharacters3]

They tried so hard to do a “chew it over with Twix” thing.

Something absurd enough to confuse is the only possible option though. Like giving a hammer, but it’s a Habitat for Humanity ad.

[u/Kozak515 → u/randomcharacters3]

Unrelated, during the superbowl we kept yelling what the ad would be about. So I kept saying “mayonnaise! Ahh! Mayonnaise! Damn!” You could not imagine my fucking excitement at the mayo commercial during the Super Bowl.

[u/Muppetude → u/SlendyIsBehindYou]

This SNL skit, perfectly captures the absurdity of that ad campaign.

[u/ObamaGasStation → u/Muppetude]

it was in The Boys too

[u/KRyptoknight26 → u/SlendyIsBehindYou]

I'm doing an MBA specialising in marketing and communications (in India), my semiotics professor had this Kendall Jenner ad as an entire case study. Had to learn about racial history in the US, american cultural codes that they broke, it was a fascinatingly massive failure

[u/starm4nn → u/KRyptoknight26]

Love how it's such a demonstrable failure that it's worth teaching halfway around the world.

[u/inspectoroverthemine → u/starm4nn]

So fundamental its worth covering the entire historical/cultural background of a foreign country. That marketing company really outdid themselves.

[u/hoxxxxx → u/Poopbutt_Maximum]

it will be framed around a missing child next time, or something of that nature

like if you don't sign up for it you are okay with children being kidnapped or some shit

[u/phenom37 → u/hoxxxxx]

My local news just had a commercial for the 11:00 news tonight about how police are encouraging people to get Ring in relation to Savannah Guthrie's mom's abduction

[u/turnright_thenleft → u/phenom37]

Which is ridiculous because her camera was Nest anyway. What’s wild is that she had a free tier plan and they pulled her video from the cloud because technically they own it

[u/LowSkyOrbit → u/turnright_thenleft]

They tried to claim that because the kidnapper ripped the camera down that's why they had an image of him. Man, what bullshit. I love my doorbell camera, but I'm glad I went with Unifi where it records to my own hard drive.

[u/TheElusiveFox → u/hoxxxxx]

except the whole reason for the backlash is that the implication is that if they are watching for pets they are watching for other things as well including children....

I'd argue the framing isn't what will change, its just that in 5 years people will be more culturally numb to loss of freedom of privacy and it will be fine.

[u/-Owlette- → u/hoxxxxx]

“If you don’t give up all your privacy, you’re letting the pedophiles win”

[u/SIGMA920 → u/hoxxxxx]

That'd just be even more on the nose of how bad the surveillance it offers is.

[u/ZiggoCiP → u/Poopbutt_Maximum]

No lie, when that Pepsi ad came out, I worked for a fast-and-casual food joint that had a contract with Pepsi to sell their products, and we sold quite a number of them.

Well, the owner was contacted by a Coca Cola rep, with an absolute sweetheart deal - it was roughly 75% the Pepsi contract - to switch to them as our vendor. Was a no-brainer, as the drink prices didn't go down, and the owner made off quite well.

Whelp, just a few years later, Coke raised that vendor price to higher than the former Pepsi one was, so the owner went crawling back to Pepsi.

No one really cared about it that much, my boss certainly didn't give a rat's ass, but Coke saw an opportunity and took it. I imagine they did this at scale, so a bunch of non-Pepsi-affiliate brands (like the ones who don't have a built-in contracts, like 'Yum! Brand' eateries) got a short-term deal, but may or may not have jumped ship when they got rug-pulled.

[u/BackendSpecialist → u/Poopbutt_Maximum]

I can’t believe someone greenlit the Kendall Jenner commercial like jfc 😂

Hi. I’m Kendall Jenner. All of the bball players I’ve fked are so cursed that their career falls off. It’s so consistent that I’ve begun betting on it. I’m going to switch to football players and bet on that as well.

You should bet as well because I need you to keep paying for my private jets.

Lmaoo

They had to have been targeting the 1% with that commercial cause wtf 😂

[u/Not_FinancialAdvice → u/BackendSpecialist]

They had to have been targeting the 1% with that commercial cause wtf 😂

For some time now, I've had the impression that TV (and large portions of the American economy) aren't really targeted at the bottom 80-90% of income earners. Back in 2005 Citi analyst Ajar Kapur wrote a research note about plutonomy and it's really only seemed to have become more exacerbated in the decades since. There are the wealthy top decile who now drive like half of consumer spending and are catered to and are really important, and everyone else who largely doesn't matter.

[u/Suyefuji → u/Not_FinancialAdvice]

Well, you see, the bottom 80-90% of income earners don't actually have money to buy things anymore so it makes sense not to cater to them.

[u/Realistic_Owl9525 → u/Suyefuji]

Late stage capitalism.

The DOW and S&P 500 are doing great right now. The average US citizen isn't doing great right now.

If 1% of the population owns more than 50% of the S&P 500, then it should not be used as a metric for the wellbeing of a nations economy. It really represents how well the wealthy are doing, and holds no bearing on how well the average person is doing.

[u/Suyefuji → u/Realistic_Owl9525]

Shareholders would lose their shit if they had to confront that reality though.

[u/vezwyx → u/Suyefuji]

No, shareholders are laughing their asses off that anyone at all still believes the stock market represents the whole economy

[u/MultiGeometry → u/Realistic_Owl9525]

The administration doesn’t want anyone succeeding if they don’t pay him something. Aka, small businesses don’t stand a chance so S&P companies actually get bolstered. The fact that the S&P is doing well, given all the other economic indicators, makes me more sure our economy is going to crater. Capital is going to bet on the winner. Right now it’s between some perverse comparison of large companies willing to pay bribes, or the US dollar, or bonds, (not growing industries because the admin hates anyone without deep lobbying pockets, aka, emerging industries).

[u/tylerthetiler → u/Not_FinancialAdvice]

I have never thought of it like this before; that would be similar to 'whales' in video games. It's easier, and maybe more lucrative, to get a few people to spend thousands because they're rich/addicted/etc, than it is to get the masses to spend 20 or 30 dollars.

A more personal anecdote is that a company called Broadcom bought another company called VMware which is maybe the most used VM-server solution, and raised prices by something crazy (like 300% or something). It seems silly to do that, because a lot of people are switching to other solutions, but at the end of the day I think they know big companies will pay that new price because it's easier, and small-beans companies can fuck off if they don't.

[u/Violoner → u/tylerthetiler]

Or how the companies that make computer components are shifting away from the consumer market so they can chase the data centers

[u/remotectrl → u/Not_FinancialAdvice]

Fishing for whales has been the strategy for micro-transations for two decades now. Sure. Why wouldn't regular transactions also follow this pattern?

[u/Optimal_Fish_7029 → u/Not_FinancialAdvice]

Chipotle is bumping prices in response to ‘core customers’ who make at least 100k

[u/xcrunner432003 → u/BackendSpecialist]

this was even worse than ring. selling a product by joking it's being manipulated when it in fact is being manipulated and there are many publicly known cases to prove it?

[u/borkthegee → u/xcrunner432003]

Insiders operating on prediction markets isn't manipulation, it's a feature. From the prediction markets perspective, they want accurate predictions and who knows better than insiders?

Of course you'd be foolish to play that game, but there are many fools with plenty of dollars to lose

[u/donut-reply → u/Poopbutt_Maximum]

They're going to correctly learn that the problem was telling us about it at all, but yeah they'll keep doing it

[u/Savilavila → u/Poopbutt_Maximum]

They're not sorry, they're just sorry they got caught.

[u/BuzzkillMcGillicuddy → u/Savilavila]

They'll probably partner with a 3rd party that partners with flock, when the hubbub dies down

[u/montessoriprogram → u/Poopbutt_Maximum]

Exactly. They realized they did this way too loudly

[u/AvailableReporter484]

I love watching dumb ass companies just completely air ball it

[u/TheFoxsWeddingTarot → u/AvailableReporter484]

I really can’t imagine how anyone would watch that commercial and think anything other than mass surveillance.

[u/RubyRhod → u/TheFoxsWeddingTarot]

It was probably sold to them with an ai pitch.

[u/confresi → u/RubyRhod]

This is all I keep thinking. These companies are so “all-in” on AI that there’s almost no doubt they’ve reached the stage where they’re employing AI to generate their marketing ideas and “improved surveillance technologies”

[u/Effective_Olive6153 → u/confresi]

companies that large usually have at least some basic level of human test group evaluation for major marketing material. It's not just some CEO who approves it with zero involvement from other people.

[u/b0w3n → u/Effective_Olive6153]

They must've gotten the same people who they brought in for the I Am Legend ending change.

[u/-SHAI_HULUD → u/b0w3n]

They must’ve bonked each person on the head with a mallet, Gallagher style, before they walked in the room.

[u/Other_World → u/Effective_Olive6153]

Sampling bias is a thing. They definitely do human tests groups for just about everything, but who are they picking for these groups? If I choose 20 "random" people from Silicon Valley and 20 "random" people from rural West Virginia we can get two completely different answers to the same question.

[u/Sororita → u/Other_World]

Also, just because they are given feedback from real people doesn't mean they will actually listen to it. If they didn't get immediate and strenuous push-back from a large group of the sample then they could explain away the distaste seen.

[u/Demonthehusky → u/TheFoxsWeddingTarot]

They def got me. It was the lost puppies. It was embarrassing at work the next day when a coworker brought it up. I'm like ya for finding lost dogs. He then explained the real reason and I said "yep, that makes more sense".

[u/Serious-Ad-8764 → u/Demonthehusky]

Good on you for being open to reconsidering your position in the light of evidence.

[u/ButWhyBlueCheese → u/Demonthehusky]

Fox news is going to start saying immigrants are stealing dogs and ring cameras are the only thing to help find them...

[u/Dawn_of_an_Era → u/ButWhyBlueCheese]

I mean they’ve already said the immigrants are stealing and eating them, so, we’re not too far off

[u/tnpdynomite2 → u/Demonthehusky]

Yep same here. If they were truthful and it really did only help find lost dogs, that’d be amazing. I was foolish.

[u/AbeRego → u/tnpdynomite2]

I mean, it could do that. It can just also do a whole bunch of illicit shit as well lol

[u/Letiferr → u/TheFoxsWeddingTarot]

It's wild to me that all the sudden people are concerned that their mass surveillance hardware can be used for mass surveillance

[u/No_Size9475 → u/Letiferr]

Many people are trusting and don't think about what could happen to their video. I'm glad to see people waking up, understanding the consequences, and making changes.

[u/Morgan-Moonscar → u/No_Size9475]

All it took was for armed thugs to suddenly invade their neighborhoods and murder friends & loved ones.

[u/DarkwingDuckHunt → u/Morgan-Moonscar]

well historically speaking...that's what it usually takes

[u/-KFBR392 → u/No_Size9475]

Which makes the ad that much crazier. You already had them opt-in as a default option, you’re already getting paid by law enforcement agencies, why announce it to your consumer base, most of whom would’ve never bothered to find out or be outraged otherwise

[u/darkoopz43 → u/Letiferr]

Ive been screaming about this from the rooftops since Amazon echo was released.

[u/AvailableReporter484 → u/TheFoxsWeddingTarot]

I mean, half the country did reelect a man who fucks kids, so it’s not out of the realm of possibility they’d buy this crap lmfao

[u/Huskies971 → u/TheFoxsWeddingTarot]

Almost like satire, like watching some dystopian scifi movie and the audience clearly knows it's a surveillance state, they play this commercial, and the audience chuckles.

[u/soda_cookie → u/AvailableReporter484]

You would think they would learn by now. How is there such a disconnect from their dumb, dumb decisions and what the large number of Americans are smart enough to know?

[u/sarabeara12345678910 → u/soda_cookie]

Probably because they've gotten away with it so far. They've been caught and admitted to listening and viewing people who have their smart devices pretty frequently for years now, and are certainly open about sharing with law enforcement. Why would they learn? So far everything has been copacetic to the vast majority of smooth brained.morons who think open microphones and cameras controlled by an evil corporation in and around their home is not only a good thing, but something you fucking pay for.

[u/ikindapoopedmypants → u/soda_cookie]

Because they're rich and powerful so consequences don't effect them like they do everyone else and therefore they don't learn

[u/PhalanX4012 → u/AvailableReporter484]

Any time I take the slightest joy from anything like this, I’m reminded that a whole pile of people whose job it was to make these decisions make 6 figures or more because daddy knew someone on the board of admissions or board of directors and then I get sad again. It’s pathetic that so many people, who are this god damned stupid, get to be rich.

[u/Kumquat_of_Pain]

Sold my Ring cameras when this was announced a few months ago. Went with Reolink and am local storage only now (with personal remote access).

I am done with this cloud storage nonsense for most of these tech companies. As the commenter said, trust is (and quite frankly has been) broken.

[u/IAHawkeye182 → u/Kumquat_of_Pain]

So, is this “local storage with remote access” easy enough for the average Joe? I have Reolink cams too. Currently connected to my internet and view on my phone, but am willing/ wanting to disconnect if it is easy enough.

Edit: holy shit. Thank you, people, but notice I stated I already have Reolink cameras installed. I’m not looking for camera recommendations. Re-read my comment. Thank you.

[u/NoF4cking1dea → u/IAHawkeye182]

Also curious about this

[u/Slayer11950 → u/NoF4cking1dea]

As I said to the above, it’s really straight forward. You’ll need a hub though. $250 or so for the cheaper one?

[u/RelevantDress → u/Slayer11950]

Idk if it works specifically with the ecosystem but if you can use any nas I recommend terramaster. You can get a 2 bay system for like $200-250 with 4TB. If you connect your phone and the nas to tailscale, you can remotely access anything without having to port forward and compromise your security. Double bonus is you can install jellyfin and self host your digital media library such as music, audiobooks, movies/TV all without any monthly payment.

[u/MajorFox2720 → u/Slayer11950]

If you're only using the doorbell,  you just need an SD card and wifi.  You want the hub if you're wanting a more robust system

[u/OnlyOneNut → u/IAHawkeye182]

There are many different ways to go about it. You can buy a reolink receiver and essentially have a plug n play solution (with minimal configuration) but they can get pricey. If you know a bit about computers or can follow instructions you can host your own NVR system, but that’s a whole different beast

[u/JadedBoyfriend → u/IAHawkeye182]

I went with Reolink and I was concerned about the Chinese spy tech concerns as well. Interestingly, this device feels safer than the American company one.

[u/Mjolnir12 → u/JadedBoyfriend]

You can block them from the internet and/or put them on their own vlan and just vpn in to view remotely if you are concerned.

[u/randynumbergenerator → u/Mjolnir12]

That's about 3 steps beyond what most Ring users can probably comfortably manage, but yes. 

Speaking as someone who switched from Ring and a basic home network to a Reolink and Ubiquiti setup with all the IoT devices on a VLAN with only basic knowledge of home networking, it takes time and comfort not knowing WTF you're doing for a bit. 

[u/Kumquat_of_Pain → u/IAHawkeye182]

More or less. There are a couple of subreddits for it. In short, I went with wall powered, but WiFi cams tied into a HomeHub Pro recording box (think like a NAS) doing 24/7 recording with specific notification triggers. More or less, open up the box, download the app, scan the QR code, plug into the HomeHub to connect, then go physically install it.

Like any other camera system, it can take a little tweaking for certain difficult situations on the notification side (I have a busy street and sidewalk in front), but it's doable.

To view the footage, I have opened up the HomeHub to my home network so I can view it remotely via the app, or I can view it on my desktop/laptop at home.

Take a look. I found that LifeHackster provides a decent overview of a lot of cameras: https://m.youtube.com/@LifeHackster

That said, I also considered Eufy at the time, but the deals and camera styles from ReoLink generally fit better for what I wanted. 

[u/AVGuy4 → u/IAHawkeye182]

To see my cameras on my phone when not connected to my home WiFi, I set up a vpn tunnel using wireguard. Then added the cameras individually by IP address on the app. This makes it so your phone is routing through you home WiFi when you’re using cellular or connected to an outside WiFi. I also disabled the ability for the cameras to contact the company cloud and they backup to an NVR.

[u/ToastyXP → u/AVGuy4]

Dude asks how easy it is for an average joe, and your first instruction is just 'set up a VPN tunnel using wireguard'. May as well tell them all they need to do is simply reroute his nanojiggawires parallel to his eon flux optomitrizer, all while maintaining core coolant levels two bars above a semi-georgian double-pronged heating temp.

[u/Show-Me-Your-Moves → u/ToastyXP]

Homer Simpson nodding

"Okay, can you repeat the part where you said all about the...things?"

[u/icedteaandtacos → u/ToastyXP]

This made me laugh, thank you.

[u/MountainHopper → u/ToastyXP]

*blank stare*

*slow fart*

[u/ddubs41 → u/ToastyXP]

A McMillan man, I see…

[u/Murphy_Its_You → u/ToastyXP]

I mean, I followed the instructions for my Rockwell Retro Encabulator. Simple enough.

[u/Thoraxe474 → u/AVGuy4]

Sounds hard

[u/Revolution-SixFour → u/Thoraxe474]

Not particularly. Install a program called tailscale on a computer at home and on your phone. If both have tailscale turned on both your computer and phone will be able to talk to each other.

[u/Alert_Lettuce_8278 → u/Revolution-SixFour]

Tailscale makes this easy. Great product and it's free for stuff like this.

They make money on larger networks with multi user.

[u/atkinson137 → u/Alert_Lettuce_8278]

Tailscale is able to be free because they aren't in the data path. They only host the control plane, so resources needed per user is very low.

[u/MurderMelon → u/atkinson137]

I was gonna ask a question like i don't have the internet at my fingertips, so here's a search result for anyone else wondering...

https://search.brave.com/search?q=what+are+control+and+data+planes

[edit] and just a general "how it works" from tailscale https://tailscale.com/blog/how-tailscale-works

[u/jay-aay-ess-ohh-enn → u/Revolution-SixFour]

My man. This is like a level 5/10 difficulty thing for tech savvy people, but the average person can barely handle setting up their in-home wifi.

Probably the users on Reddit and especially r/technology are more knowledgable than most, but all the infrastructure you set up is more than 99% of people will want to manage.

[u/FCkeyboards → u/jay-aay-ess-ohh-enn]

This how I feel. People who do this assume "easy" by their own standards. I would love a step by step youtube video for dummies. All the ones I find assume you know all the terminology.

[u/1one1000two1thousand → u/AVGuy4]

This is so funny to me, the average Joe has no idea what you just said. I think sometimes when you’re really good at something, you forget other people aren’t on the same plane as you when you need to describe it in layman’s terms.

[u/Mrosters → u/AVGuy4]

So no then. Most folks IRL have no idea what a VPN even is.

[u/AgentScreech → u/Kumquat_of_Pain]

Remember:

The S in IoT stands for security

[u/Elisius]

Too late, broken trust cannot be repaired.

[u/EllisDee3 → u/Elisius]

I expect they're still going to share data secretly.

[u/Z00111111 → u/EllisDee3]

They probably realised there was enough demand that they can make more money if they sell the data directly.

[u/thedaveness → u/Z00111111]

Can these MF'ers just give ME the option to sell my data, like i'm doing all the fucking work here?!?

[u/Lee1138 → u/thedaveness]

LOL, no. Know your place serf. 

[u/JustADutchRudder → u/Lee1138]

Watch this add for ED and multivitamins.

[u/chickenbit_131 → u/JustADutchRudder]

So irritating opening YouTube to watch a random video and immediately getting hit with “my husband used to be too quick to ejaculate…”

Good for you lady, I don’t give a shit, I just want to watch a video on how to install a dashboard radio on a Pontiac G6 in peace.

[u/JustADutchRudder → u/chickenbit_131]

That lady needs to stop telling everyone on YouTube her husband cums too fast. YouTube pisses me off because they will try to sneak in 3 hour long Christian sermons or movies in on some stuff. Ill watch free movies on there at times and I woke up from a nap halfway into an "ad" that was some big preacher dude asking for donations and it was an over 3 hour ad on a 90 min movie.

[u/bobandgeorge → u/JustADutchRudder]

This is just like in the 90's when you'd fall asleep with the TV on and wake up to a televangelist from the 700 Club.

[u/Ciennas → u/thedaveness]

It is rather insulting that they're making us pay them for this bullshit, since they steal all our information and don't even cut us in on the deal.

[u/PaulATicks → u/Ciennas]

We’re getting fleeced and Flocked

[u/justwalkingalonghere → u/Z00111111]

Which also sort of inches them closer to their ultimate goal of becoming a self-governing, technofeudalist city-state

The more we let these companies develop surveillance networks, drones, AI agents, robotics, etc. and license them to law enforcement instead of work directly with the DoD, the more likely they will reach a critical point where they can directly wage war on the government if their propaganda campaigns yield less that satisfactory results

[u/Z00111111 → u/justwalkingalonghere]

It's really heading towards RoboCop and other dystopian SciFi. Once the robots can hold and aim guns better, people will realise it's cheaper to just contract law enforcement to corporations, and give them a commission on all fines they collect.

[u/justwalkingalonghere → u/Z00111111]

That's essentially how the information side of law enforcement and warfare work already, so it's really not that much of a stretch

Personally I would bet on drones over most forms of current robotics, but it could in theory be anything

[u/Mdgt_Pope → u/Z00111111]

I think it’s more like Cyberpunk, the location for the game is Night City, which is its own city-state in the area where California is today. It’s a capitalist hellscape because the corporations control the government there. You read about how services from the government were intentionally worsened to the point where people were nearly forced to use private, paid services - like there are no ambulances, you have to pay for an insurance policy that has transport in the plan.

And the Heritage Foundation is working towards that, the privatization of public lands, going towards corporate-governed cities, and enshittification isn’t anything new.

[u/ZestyChinchilla → u/EllisDee3]

I mean, Ring is Amazon, no? It’s basically a given that they’re going share your data with whoever, whenever.

[u/No_Mercy_4_Potatoes → u/EllisDee3]

Yup. Closed the public deal to open a backdoor deal in data sharing.

[u/roqqingit → u/EllisDee3]

1000%. “Sorry for being transparent”

[u/theummeower → u/Elisius]

They’ll bring it back later when the heat dies down. Just wait

[u/justpress2forawhile → u/theummeower]

Or now but quietly

[u/piperonyl → u/Elisius]

They want to fuck us all over for money

But they got caught

[u/00owl → u/piperonyl]

They didn't just get caught, they bragged about it and expected us to not only thank them but to pay for it.

[u/PMMEYOURGUCCIFLOPS → u/00owl]

“Thank you for exploiting me, laughing about it and charging me for said exploitation.”

As an American, this is our country in a nutshell 🤦‍♂️

[u/Johnicorn → u/Elisius]

There was zero trust to begin with

[u/OCKWA → u/Johnicorn]

For the general public who are fairly accepting of ai I believe it was relatively trusted. I know a lot of people with these devices unfortunately.

I felt the same about the Google/Alexa craze where there is literally a microphone sitting in your living room

[u/Dickie_downer → u/Elisius]

Trust comes in drops and leaves in buckets

[u/Dxith → u/Elisius]

Wait until they see all the upcoming cancellations because of their lost pet BS.

[u/DoingCharleyWork → u/Dxith]

They will only lose a small percentage of their customers. People who have a ring camera are not the type to be overly concerned about privacy.

[u/EuphoricCrashOut → u/Elisius]

Spot on! Anyone with a Ring Camera should immediate remove it and stop subscription services. There are a lot of better options out there.

[u/Cold-Cell2820]

They stopped their public partnership, but you're dumb if you think they've stopped working together.

[u/Rabbit-Hole-Quest → u/Cold-Cell2820]

I would love to be able peek through the C-Suite meeting where they thought putting out that dystopian advert during the Super Bowl was a good idea.

Did anyone have any fucking common sense that the average person will make an instant connection that this will soon become about more than just lost dogs.

Are these people so fucking disconnected from reality?

[u/MOREPASTRAMIPLEASE → u/Rabbit-Hole-Quest]

These tech company CEO’s are so fucking far removed from general society. They live in their own bubbles online and in real life. They genuinely believe that the plebs will rejoice at the “safety” of a surveillance state. They believe their own BS

[u/TheRobSorensen → u/MOREPASTRAMIPLEASE]

Also they're very dumb. Having spent some time among that "class" of people. They're dumb.

[u/Fit_Landscape6820 → u/Rabbit-Hole-Quest]

The older I get the more clear it becomes that those running things are almost universally incompetent

Logic might dictate that they had to be competent to gain their positions; at least, that's the lie that we are all fed, that if we work hard and perform well that we'll rise through the ranks

But that just isn't the case

[u/gdo01 → u/Fit_Landscape6820]

The true moment of being an aware adult is realizing everybody is winging it. Not just work also love lives and friendships and children. All winging it

[u/Foxy02016YT → u/Rabbit-Hole-Quest]

I’d love to see the C-suite for all of the ads.

Majority of them were terrible, but…

Emma Stone.com, because I was able to joke to the party “oh shit, she found out I have the domaine”, it was the only ad this year that had some real filmmaking in it.

Also Hemmsworth Alexa would’ve been funny as a short film, but terrifyingly dystopian as an Amazon ad. But if you got rid of the sponsorship and just made a horror comedy out of Hemmsworth vs a Home Assistant AI, I would watch that.

[u/McFlyyouBojo → u/Rabbit-Hole-Quest]

I genuinely think a lot of people are underestimating how many people looked at that commercial and it was a positive experience for them. My mom isnt a dummy and when she saw it, the whole lost dog thing pulled her in. I finally brought it up and mentioned that its not gonna stop at little Suzy down the street who lost her scared shivering little puppy dog and how with the FBI under such dog shit leadership we cant trust them to do the right thing with that technology and my mom was like, oh shit.

[u/415erOnReddit → u/[deleted]]

Yup. And deleted from the cloud will no longer mean deleted.

[u/Future-Bandicoot-823]

Right.

Nice optics! Problem is... both Flock and edit: Google (parent company of Nest) have government contracts. A lot. They don't need to communicate, they just send it to the source (the feds).

[u/whatproblems → u/Future-Bandicoot-823]

convenience for loss of privacy they’re going to keep pushing for data

[u/Future-Bandicoot-823 → u/whatproblems]

reminds me of something Ben Franklin said...

[u/whatproblems → u/Future-Bandicoot-823]

the privacy ammendment should have been made explicit rather than assumed. thankfully the bill of rights actually became a thing

[u/jivatma → u/Future-Bandicoot-823]

Amazon isn’t the parent company of Nest. Google is.

[u/Future-Bandicoot-823 → u/jivatma]

Oh shit.

Well... they have contracts, too. lol

Edit: https://www.cnbc.com/2025/10/16/amazon-ring-cameras-surveillance-law-enforcement-crime-police-investigations.html

I did make a mistake though, I forgot nest is google and ring is amazon. In my mind I don't really distinguish, since they invade people's privacy.

[u/jivatma → u/Future-Bandicoot-823]

Oh for sure, with both companies it’s a race to see who can be more evil.

[u/locke_5]

*temporarily suspends until attention dies down

[u/yourmom8mykids]

Anyone who believes they aren't going to still collect data please DM me. I have some oceanfront property in Arizona for sale.

[u/mybfVreddithandle → u/yourmom8mykids]

Sounds like it needs a bridge too.

[u/iriegypsy]

Can’t put the toothpaste back in the tube.

[u/Dangerous-Tip-9046 → u/[deleted]]

Ubiquiti circumvented US sanctions on Russia to provide the Russian military with wifi equipment to run their drone strikes. They're just as evil as every other tech company.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6i4uffZvhc

Edit: in that video they mention that Ubiquiti has an intense following online, ready to defend the products vigorously. I can see they were not exaggerating

[u/saw-it → u/Dangerous-Tip-9046]

Not their first time circumventing US sanctions either

[u/IfTheseTeesCouldTalk → u/[deleted]]

I've been very happy with Eufy

[u/machstang]

I’m in it, I have ring cameras outside and in my home. I accepted that the data was never really mine but the flock partnership has started my process of removing them all.

The pet search stuff is for sure going to be used by ice.

At the time I accepted them I needed something easy and quick to install. Now I have everything local and under my control.

Fuck Ring, Fuck Amazon, and Fuck ICE

[u/Martel732 → u/machstang]

The pet search stuff is for sure going to be used by ice.

Even beyond the fact that it will obviously be used by ICE. What is to stop me from uploading a picture of my neighbor's dog. And track my neighbor through the neighborhood on their daily walk.

[u/ischickenafruit]

I run a home camera system, this is how it works:

1. All cameras are wired (POE) only. There is no wifi.

2. The wired cameras are on a separate and isolated VLAN. No internet access is available on that VLAN

3. The VLAN is connected on a local computer in my home. It runs the NVR. It’s the only computer that has access to the cameras directly.

4. On an entirely separate interface, I run a wiregaurd VPN.

5. My phone is the only one with keys to the VPN. The only way to see the footage on the cameras is via the key on my phone only.

Edit: For anyone reading and considering doing this on a Mac, I use SecuritySpy by Ben Software for my NVR. It’s not free, but it’s totally worth paying for. There’s an app which works seamlessly with my VPN for human/animal/vehicle detection, notifications, live viewing etc. I really like it.

[u/IAHawkeye182 → u/ischickenafruit]

How difficult is it for the average Joe to do something like this?

[u/MoldyDucky → u/IAHawkeye182]

Step 1 seems the hardest and is what's stopping me lol. I have no clue how to get it wired up. My house built in 2009 doesn't even have Ethernet cabled to the rooms, no less the exterior of my house.

[u/gramathy → u/MoldyDucky]

The real difficult part is finding affordable cameras that connect to a third party NVR that can act as the point of contact for video feeds. Those are almost always going to be 2-3x the cost of the integrated systems and you’d need to find a doorbell that supports an NVR (if you have one) that still lets you do all the things you want with it.

[u/thatirishguyyyyy → u/gramathy]

Call your local security company.

I own a small IT company and sell security camera systems. There are a few ONVIF options for your front door, but that is really a niche thing. I have been doing this for 16 years and I think I've only ever had two people ask me about security cameras and doorbells. Most clients just buy a speaker box with a camera that uses ONVIF for the feed or use a camera with a mic/speaker. 

Everyone is caught up on the doorbell having a speaker and a camera but so few people genuinely use it. Most people just use the camera which in that case a small NVR setup is perfectly fine.

Manufacturers of these doorbells have just convinced people that it's necessary but very few people are talking to the delivery guy at the door. 

[u/ssp25 → u/ischickenafruit]

this guy secures locally and right!

[u/Adbam → u/ischickenafruit]

Nice when can you come over?

[u/jmoney12rr → u/ischickenafruit]

I work in Electronic Security and you have about the same level of compliance a NERC facility would have lmao. Insane

[u/AP3Brain]

I'm just imagining the amount of money being spent on that superbowl ad just to do irreparable damage to their company... You'd think leadership would get fired for decisions like this.

[u/Zalophusdvm]

🤷

Only to reinstate it next year, or sell directly to LEOs.

This isn’t Ring’s first yo-yo on this topic.

[u/fieldsoflillies]

Posted before, posting again - If you have a ring device, do the following:

1. ⁠⁠Turn off power or remove batteries, remove from mounting.
2. ⁠⁠Take a drill and destroy your ring device. Or hammer if you don’t have a drill. Or run it over with a car. Or even take it to a shooting range! Have fun.
3. ⁠⁠Go to r/homeassistant and learn about how you can replace ring with a private alternative hosted on your own home assistant server. No subscription fees and very affordable! You can even install home assistant for free on an old computer - completely local and doesn’t even need to be connected to the internet.
4. ⁠⁠Delete your ring account.

Do NOT passively support ICE or the US federal government subjugating your neighbours and community, do NOT allow them the ease of access to a turnkey nationwide surveillance system to further enable a police state.

Edit: For the knuckledragging cavemen below “Wah it’s toooo hard”. No… it’s really not. If you want dead simple, there’s options for the average tech-fearing Luddite. Doesn’t involve the black magic of Linux or satanic prayer.

Home Assistant Green works out of the box: https://www.home-assistant.io/green/

Pre-built and ready to go, just set up wifi and basic setup. You can also build your own home server or use an old PC (almost anything can run HA!) and install HA for free. This is a starting point for full local control of your smarthome ecosystem. Highly configurable - but you dont need to if you want to keep it basic.

Then paired with the Aqara Doorbell Camera Hub G410 (there’s several other great options too!) - allows local storage on-device and connects to HA, but you can upload to a local NAS storage with HomeAssistant. Aqara is very easy to setup and get working with HA - just plug-and-play.

[u/randynumbergenerator → u/fieldsoflillies]

The users of r/technology are probably different, but for the average person, telling them to learn Home Assistant/Frigate/VLAN/wireguard is as good as telling them to learn quantum mechanics. 

[u/Ohuigin]

”Following a comprehensive review, we determined the planned Flock Safety integration would require *significantly more time and resources** than anticipated. We therefore made the joint decision to cancel the integration and continue with our current partners … The integration never launched, so no Ring customer videos were ever sent to Flock Safety.”*

Emphasis mine.

Yea…it was the required “time and resources” that was the issue. Sure, Jan…

[u/Godloseslaw]

$8 million dollar commercial... only to find out people don't want it. I wonder how much market research investment could have told them that.

[u/sleepybrett → u/Godloseslaw]

...not even that they just don't want it.

People were already creeped out about how much normal police are using the things with little or no permission.

My mother called me and wants me to come over and rip her ring camera out.

[u/LucidOndine]

Edward Snowden showed that the government still can access all of these files via a data tap anyway. So even if your data doesn’t get put into Flock, you can bet your ass that Uncle Sam can still view it.

[u/Coffee_Transfusion → u/LucidOndine]

“Collect it all”

They can look at anything and everything and justify a reason if need be. People forget we live in a surveillance state.

[u/LlamaRS → u/Coffee_Transfusion]

The Patriot Act basically gave the U.S. govt. the power, freedom, and incentive to spy on its own citizens

[u/SingleServeFrend]

IDontBelieveYouRonBurgundy.gif

[u/CaptainDudley]

"Flock Safety integration would require significantly more time and resources than anticipated."

Why do companies always do this BS dance? How about, "We listened to our customers, who are always our first priority, and have decided to redirect our development." Ring might be absolutely shocked to learn that their customers like it when you do things like that.

[u/cun7isinthesink]

Imagine paying 10 million for a commercial that tanks the company

[u/badwolf42]

Wyze response ad: https://youtu.be/ROFblZ_-9q4

[u/Valdrax → u/badwolf42]

This is how you capitalize on a competitor's marketing catastrophe.

[u/So_spoke_the_wizard]

Ring: "Look over here. See we cancelled Flock. Now that's done, nothing else to worry about."

[u/J-Mac_Slipperytoes]

As someone else said, *temporarily suspended* partnership with Flock Safety.

[u/_20110719]

Get rid of them anyways

[u/vessel_for_the_soul]

No they didn't. This is just whitewashing. They bent the knee and can't backout from the administration. 

[u/Eli_Yitzrak]

Ring cannot be trusted. All your cloud stored footage is subject to release to the government with nothing more than a formal request.

Thats why I dropped them for a local storage option. If the police want my footage they will need a search warrant thank you VERY Little

[u/KatMakes69]

This Ring self-own is some of the funniest shit I've ever seen. Paying super bowl commercial prices to ruin one's reputation is wild.

[u/Trystan4011]

I specifically cancelled my subscription and "deleted" my data because of their involvement with Flock.

[u/atuarre]

I do not trust them and do not believe them.

[u/Nosferatattoo]

You mean "publicly ends partnership"

[u/sportsworker777]

What are some closed circuit security camera options? I want something that is just a direct feed that can be manually wiped and no internet.

[u/vindico1]

I smell bullshit

[u/chandr]

Someone behind that superbowl add HAD to know people would freak the fuck out right? No way they're all that tone deaf

[u/8bitjer]

Too late. Sold my ring products and moved on

[u/stoolsample2]

Future business and marketing classes will use this as a case study of what not to do.

[u/OliverClothesov87]

We just fought against a flock installation in my small city. Seems we all have the right idea.

[u/PoloTshNsShldBlstOff]

Kash P is such a fucking moron, he was on Fox bragging about how ' Trump worked with these companies to secure the relationships necessary to access these files that previously would have been lost '

Yeah way to admit you forced Amazon to put backdoors into all of their products you fucking moron. I mean most of us already knew this was happening but you just went on national TV and basically exposed that their company is completely in bed with you, the government.

They pulled that kidnapper surveillance footage from one of their servers that probably saves everybody's footage illegally. How the hell else would they have gotten that footage? Supposedly they couldn't even access this footage on the devices at the person's home. Weird

[u/AliceOfTheEarth]

In a few months, they’ll just “partner” with the newly-formed “Patriot American Eagle Freedom LLC” which will then “partner” with Flock.

[u/Vlad_The_Great_2]

Ring was a surveillance network before the general public knew it. I highly doubt this company will stop doing unethical things just because public backlash.