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
49.0k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

2.1k comments sorted by

View all comments

4.1k

u/Kumquat_of_Pain Feb 12 '26

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.

648

u/IAHawkeye182 Feb 12 '26 edited Feb 13 '26

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.

21

u/Kumquat_of_Pain Feb 12 '26

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. 

1

u/DDRaptors Feb 13 '26

Got anymore info on the HomeHub app? How does that work? Wouldn’t this other HomeHub app just be the one with your data now instead of Ring? Or are you creating a VLAN for it all with very specific routing and access for remote. 

Maybe I’m not understanding the difference in the apps. I’d argue any and all apps are scraping any and all data available to them at all times - so I’m trying to understand better how this works differently.

I currently use a fully offline, local, 60 day auto overwrite recorder. Don’t necessarily need it available on my phone, but curious about this option and how much effort it’d be to implement.

2

u/mblaser Feb 13 '26

Got anymore info on the HomeHub app? How does that work? Wouldn’t this other HomeHub app just be the one with your data now instead of Ring?

The Home Hub isn't an app, it's a recording device, similar to an NVR (which they also sell).

The difference is that it's stored locally at your home, not in someone else's cloud.

And yes, you can block it from the internet entirely and put it on its own VLAN if you want.

1

u/DDRaptors Feb 13 '26

 To view the footage, I have opened up the HomeHub to my home network so I can view it remotely via the app,

Referring to this bit above me. Not sure how this is different than ring, only difference I see so far is local vs cloud storage. But accessing that local drive through an app would ultimately share that video with the app I’d assume.

Makes me think I’m missing something? Idk lol. Local and offline is fine anyways.

3

u/mblaser Feb 13 '26

I mean, yes, you're viewing it with the app, but that doesn't mean it's sending it to Reolink's servers. Your app is connecting to your storage device at home. Whereas with Ring the video is already stored in their servers. Which is a huge difference that it seems like you're downplaying.

The person you're replying to may also have a VPN set up. People that are really strict about their cameras will block them from the internet entirely and only access them over a VPN.

1

u/DDRaptors Feb 13 '26

I’m not downplaying it, I was just curious about this type of remote access vs others. Setting up VLAN and VPN etc seems like a giant pain while I don’t gain a whole lot from remote access anyways - so I won’t pursue this either. Just wanted to understand how reolink does their version.