Not comfortable with this https://www.washingtonpost.com/tech...h-police-forces-extending-surveillance-reach/ The doorbell-camera company Ring has quietly forged video-sharing partnerships with more than 400 police forces across the United States, granting them access to homeowners’ camera footage and a powerful role in what the company calls the nation’s “new neighborhood watch.” The partnerships let police automatically request the video recorded by homeowners’ cameras within a specific time and area, helping officers see footage from the company’s millions of Internet-connected cameras installed nationwide, the company said. Officers don’t receive ongoing or live-video access, and homeowners can decline the requests, which Ring sends via email thanking them for “making your neighborhood a safer place.” ...
At face value, what's wrong with it? They have to get your permission in order to access it. Now if you believe they would take it anyway, then I assume you'd believe they'd take it regardless of this policy, so it would be moot.
Nothing at face value. Security, safety, police crimes solving tool. All good thing... in the hand of good people. Massive lost of privacy. Technology will get better with time and adoption. Camera will see farther, with higher quality, night vision, possibly through walls, become more portable enabling wider adoption in cars and even on people. Multiple angles from multiple sources will be combined to form a high quality 3D view of any spaces under surveillance. You don’t have the ability to opt out of not being recorded or viewed (by cameras not under your control). It’s one of you vs the world. It’s a powerful set of data and in theory it can become a massive 24/7 surveillance of all things that is accessible by a click, by AI. Potential extremely effective and powerful abuse by bad apples in the police force, government, private institutions and companies.
If Ring was handing over the video without customer's knowledge and consent, I wouldn't like it. But, they get the customer's consent. And he's filming a public area (in front of his own house no less) where you have no reasonable expectation of privacy. So, I don't see any problem with this. If they make a camera that sees through walls, I expect there will be a lot of privacy concerns there and probably legislation. But we're not there yet. This is video of a public place that people who own the data willingly share with police. Relevant if not very interesting related story: a bit after Harvey, someone broke into my neighbor's house, took his keys and stole his car. The policeman saw I had a camera under the eave pointed in the right direction to get footage so he came and knocked on my door. Those cameras had been running for 4 years at least, but I had ripped out all the guts of the system in rehabbing after the flood. So they finally had their chance to be useful, but no.
Yeah, I mean if the Ring was in my bedroom, that would be one thing. But the front porch? I don't really have a reasonable expectation of privacy in my front yard.
