Any time someone says an ultra cheap monitoring device is subscription free I just picture an odd man running a curio shop telling me his wares don’t cost money
The actual hardware cost of these devices is actually minimal. Basically any wifi capable microcontroller, a camera and depending on implementation some storage (or a micro sd-card holder). So that price is only cheap in comparison to existing products.
For reference, said microcontroller with basic camera can be had for like 3$ or something.
…and do they sell data, including video, to law enforcement and insurance?
Sincerely, A person who recently was in a fender bender and was not surprised at all when Progressive shared “incident footage” from a Ring camera across the street at a location completely unrelated to the fender bender
(They ARE selling your data, folks. NEVER trust big tech to act in your best interest)
I stopped my Ring subscription but kept the doorbell camera.
It wasn’t until a year later when I was moving and the house was almost completely empty (still had internet/wifi setup) and I looked at the wifi app and saw that the ring doorbell still had significant data usage.
They were clearly still capturing my doorbell video.
It’s a rebranded Tuya device, and they don’t sell your data to any law enforcement or insurance.
They do however comply with Chinese laws and all your data is readily available for the Chinese government.
That hardly seems like a relevant concern to any US or other international buyers though
All your data from this device being stored on servers in China that are accessible to the Chinese government isn’t a relevant concern?
What are they gonna do? Send the Chinese police to break down my door and ship me to El Salvador? At least china is less likely to just give that info to the people who can actually commit violence against me.
Personally I don’t care which state actor it is, I don’t want any of them to have easy access to my data.
If they want it, they should work for it.
Umm… that could have just been the other driver asking the person for their footage from the camera they saw.
Not everything is a conspiracy dude, that’s commonly done after any incident lmfao.
I have cameras and plenty of people have asked me for random footage for thefts and collisions, none being a company or insurance, always the person affected…
Edit, sorry I guess once the police did, but still there’s nothing odd or weird about what happened to you.
Except it literally is a conspiracy (An agreement to perform together an illegal, wrongful, or subversive act.) and actually happening. Debatably it’s legal, rightful, and not subversive. I think most people would disagree though. It’s not like people are just guessing this is happening. We know the data is being sold, to the police/government, and presumably also to other companies.
In this case, it might not involve the surveillance company selling or sharing anything. All an insurance adjuster has to do is knock on doors in the area and ask the home owners if they are willing to share any video footage they have.
And yes, people do this all the time. I work in this industry.
I really hate to stand on the side of the data hoarding conglomerates, but there’s a significant chance they were not involved in the release of that video.
Sure, but people STILL knock on the doors. They likely didn’t participate in a conspiracy to get it, sorry.
It may not require a subscription fee, but that’s really only a minor concern.
Having my video surveillance be uploaded to a cloud service and having to use some proprietary app to use my device is the real problems.
If you want security cameras, look for boring Power over Ethernet cameras that have an RTSP output. They connect to your network and provide a video stream out a specific port. Then you can plug that into whatever FOSS network video recording system you’re using (Zone Minder or Frigate) and then you can access it like you access any other thing on your local network.
Never goes to a cloud, never leaves your house.
If it has local storage then it doesn’t get uploaded anywhere.
It also has BT so the offline mode could be simply “record to SD card and view videos using some app via Bluetooth”.
Online mode with notifications and two-way talking has to require internet access so I definitely wouldn’t trust it, with or without subscription.
It’s a rebranded Tuya device, which can actually be used in a local only mode.
I wouldn’t trust connecting it to the Tuya online services though that is for certain.
“Doorbell with a subscription” is something so utterly stupid, an absolute misdevelopment.
Not so bad when you think about it …… Ring’s subscription isn’t too expensive and it gives you cloud storage and remote access. Bring on the hatred but I’ve found it one of the few worthwhile subscriptions
I believe this is only for the European market though. Aldi has stores in the United States, but I don’t believe it’s available here.
Are these even legal in Europe (the part that is not the UK…)?
I think yes, as long as it only sees within your private property.
Front yards don’t have the expectation of privacy… that applies to backyards doesn’t it?
If your front yard is public property, you can’t constantly record it, simple.
Front yards aren’t…
And you can’t record a public street for security? Even if it’s deleted? That makes absolutely no sense, how would you ever catch a crime?
How do we catch a crime without cameras recording everything all the time? That is your question?
No, I’m asking you. Because you seem to be applying the law to stuff it doesn’t apply to, so I’m trying to figure out your knowledge on it, so we can figure out where you went wrong.
And who said ALL the time, security cameras use motion, or a host of other tech to not record all the time and NOT store it. So which law do you think is being broken?
You are asininely saying that if I took a picture of someone throwing something on my house, that would be inadmissible because the street was in it…? Is that what you think the law is doing here…?
I believe this is only for the European market though. Aldi has stores in the United States, but I don’t believe it’s available here.
Looked at my Florida Aldi, no luck.
Stop putting bloody cameras bloody everywhere bloody hell!
Security researcher here. I’m assuming this to be some low cost chinese easily hacked thing.
The product page says it offers cloud storage. Though you maybe can use it offline by recording to an SD card.
So it may not require a subscription, but it still requires an online service… which kind of misses the point that people make about these things being privacy nightmares.
It wasn’t the fee that people were worried about, it was the network video camera uploading to a cloud service which can be accessed by the secret police.
Yup, it’s a rebranded Tuya device.
Nah, they make them in the stockroom out of leftover shipping boxes and old VCRs.
Do you have a recommendation for consumer-priced outdoor cameras/doorbells? Seems like a minefield.
I don’t have input on cameras specifically, but I have gone pretty deep into trying to understand how to maximise security and interoperability in smart home stuff, through open source control.
A starting point for the you-in-control app to use for smart devices is Home assistant. I was surprised by how easy it was to set up self hosted smart home stuff, largely because there’s loads of guides that build around home assistant. So whether a particular camera works with home assistant is a good starting search filter
Only cameras I recommend are not consumer priced :/ Axis. You do get full access, can run your own code and offline etc.
Reolink for the cameras and deny them internet access. You can tell them to record to internal SD Card and / or setup an NVR like Frigate. If you don’t want “roll your own” headaches and have the money for it then use gear from Ubiquiti and UniFi Protect.
Thanks, I’ll take a look.
£17.
how about i dont need a video doorbell and i can use my eyeballs and look out the window
Good luck doing that in my place.
i get it that tech is cool and stuff, but as ive gotten older, ive learned not to rely on it as much
Yeah, but you literally cannot see where the doorbell is at my place. It’s a physical impossibility. I live on the second floor of a two flat with an enclosed entryway. No window anywhere in the building can see who rang the doorbell. Glad that works for you.
i didn’t have a doorbell when i was still with my ex, and the only way i could see someone on the otherside was a spyhole. at my parents, i just look through the window
No subscription fee yet. Enshittification hits everything eventually.
640x360. They claim it’s 480p. Maybe oy half-interlaces? Hah
It says subscription-free, writes to AN SD card, and implies no cloud storage. It could very well be þat it requires no internet connection, in which case þe only limiter to using it in þe US would be power. Eiþer it’s battery powered, or doorbell line powered (like many smart doorbell devices in þe US). Doorbell lines in þe US are 12V (or 24V - I don’t remember which exactly), but if it’s battery powered I can’t see why you couldn’t use it in þe US - batteries are þe one truly universal international standard.
It’s probably too much to hope for zwave or someþing, but even if its WiFi, it looks as if þey’re positioning it to be cloud-service-free. Looks interesting.
It’s not cloud free and requires online activation with the Tuya app. (I assume based on other Tuya WiFi devices)
Well, þat sucks.
