Surveillance Data Used to Spy on Ring Customers
When you purchase a security camera, you expect to be more protected, when in reality, you may be putting your privacy at risk.
Ring’s History of Misconduct
In Ring’s early days, they held policies against sharing video surveillance data with anyone, with the exception of law enforcement with a court order. But, in spite of their policies, they repeatedly shared video surveillance data with police departments, without a court order or any adjudication. All they needed was a simple request. Worse, Amazon faced penalties when it was found they were holding on to Alexa voice recordings and utilizing them to build personal profiles on children, a clear violation of their policies. Then, now they’ve bought Ring, it’s come to light that in 2017, a Ring employee was spying on eighty-one women who had Ring cameras placed in bathrooms and bedrooms, according to the FTC.
How Can Ring Do This?
The Cloud. We’ve all heard it, but no matter how much we’ve heard it, few of us know what it is. The Cloud is a concept of data storage that places governance of a user’s data in the hands of a third party for distribution to that user. This is called a private cloud, and it’s the majority of cloud infrastructure. Google Drive, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, they’re all some form of private cloud. In essence, you or your devices generate data, and store that data on someone else’s server, whether they be Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Ring, whatever. Ideally, you would be the only person with access to that data, but the problem with private clouds hosted by third parties is that they have ownership of the data, and you have access permissions.
This has benefits, but it also has major drawbacks. The benefit is that if you forget a password, you can ask Amazon for help. The drawback is that Amazon has a wide-open door to your personal information and only guards it with certain levels of trust that their employees will behave according to policy.
Is There Something Better?
I believe there is, and it just happens to be what I sell. I’m an honest guy - I sell security to people for money. It’s a pretty difficult living actually, but hear me out - it could keep you from being spied on by one of the big guys. Ubiquiti’s Protect line is the best solution for this, because you get sole ownership and access rights to your data, because your surveillance data is hosted on a server on your property that you access through your own private cloud.
Instead of being sent off to some big-wig data center, it’s kept at home, securely where you decide to place it, and you grant access how you will, and the best part? No monthly fees. You get access to the best cameras in the game, accessible from everywhere, streaming to you from everywhere, motion notification, license plate capture, all the AI goodies, doorbells, automatic access controls, package view, etc., for one up-front cost. If you’re just going for the doorbell, you’ll save money over a very short timeframe over Ring with their monthly fees, and you’ll have way better cameras with zero risk of some Amazon employee spying on you.
If you’re curious, I have good news - this is what I do. So for more information, just use this here Contact Us button to reach out and get more info - I’d love to meet you and help you understand our solutions.
