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This kind of outcome is precisely why I removed all cameras and other smart capabilities from my home on the day I moved in. I've never once seen someone in my

This kind of outcome is precisely why I removed all cameras and other smart capabilities from my home on the day I moved in. I've never once seen someone in my friend & family circle achieve some positive outcome in their own household by having more surveillance around it. The only thing I observe is increased anxiety when squirrels or FedEx trigger push notifications to phones.

JohnFen 4y ago
I recently had my place broken into and was the first thing I did was to hand the cops a memory stick with the relevant footage from my cameras on it. My system isn't managed by any companies, so nobody can be all sneaky about getting footage. But I could still provide that footage to the cops when needed. It's the best of both worlds. I should note that I have no cameras that can see any public space. They only record my private areas. I have too much respect for my neighbors to invade their privacy.
- ambicapter 4y ago
  Did anything come out of you handing over that footage?
  - JohnFen 4y ago
    It's still under active investigation. The police won't update me about progress until/unless they need to.
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
- squokko 4y ago
  Did you get your stuff back?
  - JohnFen 4y ago
    It's unlikely I will. But the alarm chased them off, so they took very little. I lost about $300 of stuff.
    - squokko 4y ago
      I ask because I got 4K video of a burglar's face and showed it to the cops, and they were like "what do you want us to do with this," and it made me question the entire value of security footage.
      - JohnFen 4y ago
        I was actually very surprised that the police seem to be actively investigating this. I expected they'd just take my report and file it away. I think that the reason why they are taking this more seriously, particularly considering my monetary loss was relatively low, is because of the way the break in happened. It was very violent. The burglar had tried breaking my door open with a crowbar (or similar tool), a power tool that the police think was a saws-all, and when those methods failed, just resorted to kicking the door repeatedly until the doorframe itself broke. I have no idea why he didn't just break a window instead of going to all that effort. I believe the police interest is not really because of the theft, but because of the method of entry. It was more like a home invasion you see in the movies. But that's all speculation. The cops tell me nothing, other than this was obviously not a random burglary. I was targeted specifically. The burglar was covered head to toe, so the video doesn't provide for readily identifying him. But there were other things that the camera incidentally picked up that points a finger to a particular neighbor. So, for me, the video did something very important: it clearly told me that however this all shakes out, it's too risky to stay where I am and I need to move. That knowledge alone was worth the surveillance system.
- JohnFen 4y ago
  Replying to myself because it's too late to edit my post. I thought this was worth mentioning -- the burglar beelined for the closet in one of the bedrooms. I mentioned to the cop that I found that strange, as if he was looking for something specific. The cop said it's not strange at all, that burglars usually do that because people tend to keep their really valuable stuff in their bedrooms. The lesson I took from that is don't keep your really valuable stuff in your bedroom. Just a little public service announcement.
macrolime 4y ago
You were missing the AI squirrel counter. If you had this, you could have a dashboard showing the number of squirrels visiting you each day and the time of their visit. Instead of being anxious, you could be a squirrel expert and you long conversation on squirrel behavior with your neighbors. Instead of getting a notification for each squirrel, you could instead set goals of how many squirrels you want to visit you and get notifications when you reach those goals. Then you'd have a fun game. How to get 10 or more squirrels to visit each day? Maybe put some nuts outside? Endless possibilities.
BeetleB 4y ago
> This kind of outcome is precisely why I removed all cameras and other smart capabilities from my home on the day I moved in. I have a cat. Someone needs to take care of it when I travel. A smart camera and smart lock let me know if someone came to my house to give the cat food. Before that, twice, my cat went 24-48 hours without food because the designated caregiver dropped the ball.
outworlder 4y ago
> This kind of outcome is precisely why I removed all cameras and other smart capabilities from my home on the day I moved in. Why? Obviously that's your choice, but there's nothing inherently evil about a "smart home". The main issue is that some devices require a cloud connection, but I'm getting rid of those. I installed cameras after someone got inside our fenced in backyard and stole a bike. It would have been great to have some evidence or even a notification that something had happened – this was at the height of COVID so we were not even going out, took me a week to notice the missing bike. Cameras are configured to only turn on in a schedule - so late at night and early morning; I can also manually turn on if we are out for an extended period. I don't do 24/7 monitoring precisely because of the useless notifications.
- mikeg8 4y ago
  > there's nothing inherently evil about a "smart home" Not so sure. If a house is designed to have as much surveillance capability and access points to gain as much info on you as possible - like if Facebook were to design a house to collect user info on the inhabitants - that would absolutely be “evil” in many peoples eyes. The real question is do all these “smart” devices actually improve people’s well being? Or is it all marketing magic bullshit with negligible end- user benefits at the expense of more privacy invasions? I don’t want my house cooperating with big brother, and that’s what many smart devices seem more than willing to do.

JohnFen 4y ago

I recently had my place broken into and was the first thing I did was to hand the cops a memory stick with the relevant footage from my cameras on it. My system isn't managed by any companies, so nobody can be all sneaky about getting footage. But I could still provide that footage to the cops when needed. It's the best of both worlds. I should note that I have no cameras that can see any public space. They only record my private areas. I have too much respect for my neighbors to invade their privacy.

ambicapter 4y ago
Did anything come out of you handing over that footage?
- JohnFen 4y ago
  It's still under active investigation. The police won't update me about progress until/unless they need to.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
squokko 4y ago
Did you get your stuff back?
- JohnFen 4y ago
  It's unlikely I will. But the alarm chased them off, so they took very little. I lost about $300 of stuff.
  - squokko 4y ago
    I ask because I got 4K video of a burglar's face and showed it to the cops, and they were like "what do you want us to do with this," and it made me question the entire value of security footage.
    - JohnFen 4y ago
      I was actually very surprised that the police seem to be actively investigating this. I expected they'd just take my report and file it away. I think that the reason why they are taking this more seriously, particularly considering my monetary loss was relatively low, is because of the way the break in happened. It was very violent. The burglar had tried breaking my door open with a crowbar (or similar tool), a power tool that the police think was a saws-all, and when those methods failed, just resorted to kicking the door repeatedly until the doorframe itself broke. I have no idea why he didn't just break a window instead of going to all that effort. I believe the police interest is not really because of the theft, but because of the method of entry. It was more like a home invasion you see in the movies. But that's all speculation. The cops tell me nothing, other than this was obviously not a random burglary. I was targeted specifically. The burglar was covered head to toe, so the video doesn't provide for readily identifying him. But there were other things that the camera incidentally picked up that points a finger to a particular neighbor. So, for me, the video did something very important: it clearly told me that however this all shakes out, it's too risky to stay where I am and I need to move. That knowledge alone was worth the surveillance system.
JohnFen 4y ago
Replying to myself because it's too late to edit my post. I thought this was worth mentioning -- the burglar beelined for the closet in one of the bedrooms. I mentioned to the cop that I found that strange, as if he was looking for something specific. The cop said it's not strange at all, that burglars usually do that because people tend to keep their really valuable stuff in their bedrooms. The lesson I took from that is don't keep your really valuable stuff in your bedroom. Just a little public service announcement.

macrolime 4y ago

You were missing the AI squirrel counter. If you had this, you could have a dashboard showing the number of squirrels visiting you each day and the time of their visit. Instead of being anxious, you could be a squirrel expert and you long conversation on squirrel behavior with your neighbors. Instead of getting a notification for each squirrel, you could instead set goals of how many squirrels you want to visit you and get notifications when you reach those goals. Then you'd have a fun game. How to get 10 or more squirrels to visit each day? Maybe put some nuts outside? Endless possibilities.

BeetleB 4y ago

> This kind of outcome is precisely why I removed all cameras and other smart capabilities from my home on the day I moved in. I have a cat. Someone needs to take care of it when I travel. A smart camera and smart lock let me know if someone came to my house to give the cat food. Before that, twice, my cat went 24-48 hours without food because the designated caregiver dropped the ball.

outworlder 4y ago

> This kind of outcome is precisely why I removed all cameras and other smart capabilities from my home on the day I moved in. Why? Obviously that's your choice, but there's nothing inherently evil about a "smart home". The main issue is that some devices require a cloud connection, but I'm getting rid of those. I installed cameras after someone got inside our fenced in backyard and stole a bike. It would have been great to have some evidence or even a notification that something had happened – this was at the height of COVID so we were not even going out, took me a week to notice the missing bike. Cameras are configured to only turn on in a schedule - so late at night and early morning; I can also manually turn on if we are out for an extended period. I don't do 24/7 monitoring precisely because of the useless notifications.

mikeg8 4y ago
> there's nothing inherently evil about a "smart home" Not so sure. If a house is designed to have as much surveillance capability and access points to gain as much info on you as possible - like if Facebook were to design a house to collect user info on the inhabitants - that would absolutely be “evil” in many peoples eyes. The real question is do all these “smart” devices actually improve people’s well being? Or is it all marketing magic bullshit with negligible end- user benefits at the expense of more privacy invasions? I don’t want my house cooperating with big brother, and that’s what many smart devices seem more than willing to do.