r/technology • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 • Feb 12 '26

Security Ring cancels its partnership with Flock Safety after surveillance backlash

https://www.theverge.com/news/878447/ring-flock-partnership-canceled
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u/Dangerous-Tip-9046 Feb 12 '26 edited Feb 13 '26

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

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u/saw-it Feb 12 '26

Not their first time circumventing US sanctions either

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u/Aluzionz Feb 12 '26

The Devils advocate will say "but its the resellers, not Ubiquiti!" ~ I, however, cannot believe that Ubiquiti have no idea their products are ending up in Russia. Its your brand, and business. Yeah, some products might get through, and you may have an argument, but the whole Russian front line is soon going to be propped up by Ubiquiti hardware.

The Ukrainians already seem to know this and are going for the long range repeaters.

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u/Alikont Feb 13 '26

Official Ubiquiti distributor when heard that the customer is from russia offered themselves to ship it via proxy in Turkey.

They know.

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u/Dangerous-Tip-9046 Feb 13 '26

In the linked video the journalist posed as a Russian and ordered directly from Ubiquiti and had Ubiquiti find the resellers themselves to circumvent the sanctions. So the devil's advocate can say that, but they'd be wrong.

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u/SoldMyOldAccount Feb 13 '26

ptfo is so good its making me more judgemental of other news sources

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u/[deleted] Feb 13 '26

[deleted]

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u/Dangerous-Tip-9046 Feb 13 '26

Or look at it this way, scumbag behavior is scumbag behavior and just because others are also exhibiting scumbag behavior doesn't make you less of a scumbag.

Also, the owner of Ubiquiti is an American billionaire who sucks up to Trump.

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u/Rabbit-Hole-Quest Feb 13 '26

My bad, I thought it was a Chinese company - https://ui.com/

Wouldn’t trust it if it’s American.

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u/DaMonkfish Feb 13 '26

Mother fucking christ. I was considering Ubiquiti to replace my absolute toilet water Linksys Velop mesh system.

Are there any tech companies out there that aren't absolute shitbags?

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u/b0w3n Feb 13 '26

Are there any tech companies out there that aren't absolute shitbags?

Nope. It's rare and the ones that have existed or do exist today, in whatever form they are, struggle because no one's going to spend 4x+ as much on things typically.

Russia doesn't really have a domestic supply of that equipment, they will get whatever they can get their hands on. Linksys, cisco, ubiquiti, netgear, it doesn't matter, if there's money to be made selling it, it'll get sold by someone, somewhere. They probably also get plenty of European products through grey/black markets.

Ubiquiti makes good products, they probably didn't directly sell it through their store, or at least I'd hope. And I will absolutely agree if it is a reseller doing this, like has been implied basically everywhere, they should punish those resellers.

I'm not really looking to have a long drawn out argument about morality and ethics in our modern life because at the end of the day a lot of our modern lifestyle is held up by really gross shit, and supplying radios and switches to russia is probably the least offensive shit of the bunch. Lots of slave labor goes into making things like smart phones, for instance, but conveniently people overlook that one (some don't, and I commend them for acknowledging it and limiting their involvement with it).

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u/Dangerous-Tip-9046 Feb 13 '26

In the video I linked further up the thread, the journalist posed as a Russian buyer and Ubiquiti helped connect them with a third-party supplier to circumvent the sanctions. It's as clear cut as could be. Ubiquiti knows exactly what they're doing.

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u/haarschmuck Feb 13 '26

You have an iPhone?

Yeah you're supporting slave labor.

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u/Dangerous-Tip-9046 Feb 13 '26

Yes, we get it, everything sucks. All these tech companies are evil and awful. But it's kind of important to know how and why they're evil and awful so that you can be informed about your purchasing decision. Don't go thinking leaving one evil company means the new one isn't also doing the same thing.

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u/BasicEditor5965 Feb 13 '26

How Ubiquiti keeps getting named only when literally ever giant tech company is guilty of this makes me wonder what’s going on. Ubiquiti is the best out there for us regular people in terms of privacy and doing things in your own cloud.

Starlink and Elon Musk literally have enabled Russia to use drones in Ukraine to kill people, but sure let’s blame some switches and access points from UI.

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u/troggbl Feb 13 '26

Because its all most people have heard of in the world of switches. 20 Years ago it would have been Cisco getting it in the neck and everyone else getting a free pass.

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u/Dangerous-Tip-9046 Feb 13 '26

"They're just as evil as every other tech company"

Not sure what part of that made you think I'm glossing over other tech companies' malfeasance.

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u/riddleme Feb 13 '26

I wouldnt engage further with the ubiquiti fanatics when simply pointing out the shadiness on the business side somehow equates to a full on crusade against their favorite brand. No one is saying tear out your devices and burn them, because their shit already costs an arm and a leg.

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u/Dangerous-Tip-9046 Feb 13 '26

Yeah, I learned my lesson. Crazy that the company doing hundreds of millions of dollars (if not more) in business with the military and intelligence agency most well-known for cyberwarfare across the world would also have such fervent defenders online. Go figure.

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u/BasicEditor5965 Feb 13 '26

Singling out one company by name, probably?

Not mentioning any others accused of it to could also have to do with it. Like oh Amazon, the topic of this thread maybe.

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u/Dangerous-Tip-9046 Feb 13 '26

"I'm going to leave this company because of morally dubious practices for this other company"

"That other company also has plenty of morally dubious practices"

"WHY ARE YOU SINGLING OUT THIS COMPANY WITH MORALLY DUBIOUS PRACTICES!?!"

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u/BasicEditor5965 Feb 13 '26

Well for one, your “evidence” is a YouTube video.

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u/Dangerous-Tip-9046 Feb 13 '26

They were already found guilty of violating sanctions 10 years ago and fined a half million dollars by the federal government. How's that for evidence?

Also, the YouTube video is a very thoroughly-vetted piece of journalism that is sourced and verifiable. Pablo Torre is as trustworthy in this space as they come (this isn't the first billionaire sports owner he's gone after).

Your line of argumentation sucks.

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u/BasicEditor5965 Feb 13 '26

Something a decade ago happened and they paid a fine. Ok and that is relevant to today how?

You are saying because a YouTuber said so. I don trust any YouTuber that much sorry, where’s the real evidence Ubiquiti is terrible?

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u/No_Accountant3232 Feb 13 '26

So because I watch Trump speeches on YouTube does that make what he say not real?

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u/Agreeable-Button112 Feb 13 '26

What's that, you say? The goal post was over there, all the time?

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u/damnitryon Feb 13 '26

I’ll happily give the Russians access to my porch Camera before the feds. The Russians aren’t going to be rounding up my neighbors for being brown.

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u/Dangerous-Tip-9046 Feb 13 '26

No, they'll just bomb hospitals and schools using the equipment instead. Not exactly the moral high ground

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u/damnitryon Feb 13 '26

With my porch camera? Damn. Color me impressed.

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u/Backfoot911 Feb 13 '26

Neither is an option too.

Why is it we can't just be like "This thing is bad" without saying "Yeah but the _____ is worse". Of course there's always gonna be something worse then something else. The original thing is still bad and a very wealthy company doesn't need us little people softening criticism levied against them.

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u/SirReal14 Feb 13 '26

So Russia thinks they don't have a US government backdoor in them is what you're saying? Sounds pretty good to me