Comments

1

All in all, Amazon Rings just seem to add more unnecessary stress in one's life. Always on alert because of it and at the most you might see the thief who took your package. And of course, it's often appreciated/requested by law enforcement if an event occurs in your neighborhood.

You might think of me as being all for them. But as I get older I'm finding myself triaging unnecessary stress makers, and a ring seems to be one.

2

surely EVERY one Needs
a 'smart speaker'* in their homes,
autos, baths and boudoirs. oh and pockets.

*a most Excellent LISTENER
! we CAN hear you now !

3

@2 if "smart" speakers were constantly uploading the audio of your home, people would have found out a long time ago. Anyone with a finger on their home network would notice their data usage way up, or calls out to Amazon APIs way up. Accidental invokes happen and audio can get uploaded, but if you think the FBI or anyone is sitting around listening to accidental invokes for any mention of a crime you are delusional.
I have written several skills for Amazon Echo devices, literally all it is is a small program that interprets pre-defined intentions invoking an API, sending json data, then compiling a response from the data and sending that back to the user. Everything has to be programmed by programmer, there really is nothing "smart" about it...no AI to determine a user's intent if they get the phrasing wrong. If a user doesn't say exactly what you have typed into your skill, nothing happens.
That said, I would not use a video device that routes and stores video on someone else's servers. If you are worried about security, there are plenty of options out there that let you store video data locally and still be able to access the feed while you are away from home via port-forwarding...nothing going through Amazon servers or random servers in China.

4

I have mixed feelings about them. Home security cameras are absolutely useful. Whether they should automatically upload to the cloud is another issue. Yes the data can be misused, but if your home burns down you lose all of it anyway, and in the case of the arson that can be kind of useful to have off-site.

5

I think people who are worried about privacy are probably right... but I honestly can't be bothered to care, especially by someone who has to look up McGruff and complains about not getting to see the Woman-face, sorry, drag show (no offense to trans people: if you aren't in it for show business, go ahead and do your thing). Frankly other security solutions are so much worse than Ring doorbells (which, btw, are pretty dang useful for the MANY times things get left on my porch without a knock, but then mine isn't pointed at the street) that I'm inclined to treat Ring the way I treat the rest of Amazon, IE, maintaining a belief that Bezos is a money obsessed sociopath while also acknowledging that, as a whole, Amazon could be a lot worse: it could be almost any other retail chain or service provider.

6

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqYJLtz4_rA


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