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I was always skeptical of cloud-based camera solutions due to privacy & bandwidth concerns, but now that those concerns are being proven true and reported in ma

I was always skeptical of cloud-based camera solutions due to privacy & bandwidth concerns, but now that those concerns are being proven true and reported in mainstream outlets I can’t imagine any reason to purchase them now. Long-term prospects for Ring can’t be looking good.

rchaud 7y ago
Marketing this kind of product directly to consumers is a fool's game. Consumers will always ask inconvenient questions like these when they're forking over their own money. Pretty soon Ring will shift to working primarily with security and insurance companies who will bundle this into their own service offerings. The end customer will never even know what gets recorded, where it's stored or who has access.
gbrown 7y ago
You vastly underestimate the complacency of average consumers.
- jiveturkey 7y ago
  Yep, and Ring has already proven its model. If privacy were an actual problem, Ring would not have made it this far.
  - bluejekyll 7y ago
    This might be an education gap. That is, people really like the cameras and the way they work/ease of use, but they may not be aware of how non-private the recordings are. If they were, their opinion might be very different.
    - criddell 7y ago
      For some portion of their customer base, I'm sure that's true. Ring's biggest product is their doorbell and I'd be willing to bet that a big chunk of their customer base isn't that concerned if somebody accesses their doorbell video. I'm not sure I'd care...
CerealFounder 7y ago
We're being sold a problem and a solution.
embeddedpro 7y ago
Upcoming /s- It would really suck if someone could watch my front door. Like, they might know when my package arrives? Or what if someone checked my naked footage? /S I really don't care. Should I care?
- choward 7y ago
  The only reason you had to explain it was sarcasm is of course you should care. You sound like one of those "I have nothing to hide" people even though having something to hide is completely irrelevant. You're being spied on and you don't see any problems with that? And by the way, everyone has something to hide whether they know it or not.
  - rococode 7y ago
    There's that one TED talk about privacy where the guy says something like, "People say they have nothing to hide, but do any of you want to give me access to your private email account right now? No? Right, no one's ever taken me up on that". I've always thought that was a bit of a strawman. In the case of my front door, I really wouldn't mind even if it were livestreamed for the whole world to watch. I agree that "I have nothing to hide" is generally a poor argument, but I think when it's more specific it can be a valid statement, e.g. "I have nothing to hide when it comes to things that go on outside my front door". I can't recall in my entire life a single event outside my front door that I would care about other people being able to watch. Can I imagine a scenario where I might want privacy at my front door? Sure. Maybe my friend becomes a fugitive and comes to me looking for help. Maybe I become a CIA informant and they come to secretly meet with me. But in the few situations I can think of where I would actually care about total privacy around my front door, I'd hope I would have the prescience to pop out the batteries in advance. I legitimately cannot think of a single case in which I might care that someone is watching my front entryway. Of course, I don't feel the same way about other camera positions. But I think I'm a pretty security-conscious guy (my in-home security cameras are airgapped and streamed to a local server) and I have a Ring on my front door and have no qualms about it.
    - 7y ago
frockington1 7y ago
It has a lot of advantages. Now when a criminal steals my package I alert the police immediately with 100% return rate so far. Before Ring, I would go home and search for a package for thirty minutes before realizing it was stolen. I'll gladly pay $3 a month for this service, it pays for itself. As far as privacy, I don;t have the privilege of a gated community to keep thieves out so this is the next best thing

rchaud 7y ago

Marketing this kind of product directly to consumers is a fool's game. Consumers will always ask inconvenient questions like these when they're forking over their own money. Pretty soon Ring will shift to working primarily with security and insurance companies who will bundle this into their own service offerings. The end customer will never even know what gets recorded, where it's stored or who has access.

gbrown 7y ago

You vastly underestimate the complacency of average consumers.

jiveturkey 7y ago
Yep, and Ring has already proven its model. If privacy were an actual problem, Ring would not have made it this far.
- bluejekyll 7y ago
  This might be an education gap. That is, people really like the cameras and the way they work/ease of use, but they may not be aware of how non-private the recordings are. If they were, their opinion might be very different.
  - criddell 7y ago
    For some portion of their customer base, I'm sure that's true. Ring's biggest product is their doorbell and I'd be willing to bet that a big chunk of their customer base isn't that concerned if somebody accesses their doorbell video. I'm not sure I'd care...

CerealFounder 7y ago

We're being sold a problem and a solution.

embeddedpro 7y ago

Upcoming /s- It would really suck if someone could watch my front door. Like, they might know when my package arrives? Or what if someone checked my naked footage? /S I really don't care. Should I care?

choward 7y ago
The only reason you had to explain it was sarcasm is of course you should care. You sound like one of those "I have nothing to hide" people even though having something to hide is completely irrelevant. You're being spied on and you don't see any problems with that? And by the way, everyone has something to hide whether they know it or not.
- rococode 7y ago
  There's that one TED talk about privacy where the guy says something like, "People say they have nothing to hide, but do any of you want to give me access to your private email account right now? No? Right, no one's ever taken me up on that". I've always thought that was a bit of a strawman. In the case of my front door, I really wouldn't mind even if it were livestreamed for the whole world to watch. I agree that "I have nothing to hide" is generally a poor argument, but I think when it's more specific it can be a valid statement, e.g. "I have nothing to hide when it comes to things that go on outside my front door". I can't recall in my entire life a single event outside my front door that I would care about other people being able to watch. Can I imagine a scenario where I might want privacy at my front door? Sure. Maybe my friend becomes a fugitive and comes to me looking for help. Maybe I become a CIA informant and they come to secretly meet with me. But in the few situations I can think of where I would actually care about total privacy around my front door, I'd hope I would have the prescience to pop out the batteries in advance. I legitimately cannot think of a single case in which I might care that someone is watching my front entryway. Of course, I don't feel the same way about other camera positions. But I think I'm a pretty security-conscious guy (my in-home security cameras are airgapped and streamed to a local server) and I have a Ring on my front door and have no qualms about it.
  - 7y ago

frockington1 7y ago

It has a lot of advantages. Now when a criminal steals my package I alert the police immediately with 100% return rate so far. Before Ring, I would go home and search for a package for thirty minutes before realizing it was stolen. I'll gladly pay $3 a month for this service, it pays for itself. As far as privacy, I don;t have the privilege of a gated community to keep thieves out so this is the next best thing