this post was submitted on 12 Feb 2026
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A Super Bowl ad for Ring security cameras boasting how the company can scan neighborhoods for missing dogs has prompted some customers to remove or even destroy their cameras.

Online, videos of people removing or destroying their Ring cameras have gone viral. One video posted by Seattle-based artist Maggie Butler shows her pulling off her porch-facing camera and flipping it the middle finger.

Butler explained that she originally bought the camera to protect against package thefts, but decided the pet-tracking system raised too many concerns about government access to data.

"They aren't just tracking lost dogs, they're tracking you and your neighbors," Butler said in the video that has more than 3.2 million views.

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[–] HugeNerd@lemmy.ca 3 points 3 hours ago

Because they all connect to the Kremlin via a single washing machine CPU.

[–] BanMe@lemmy.world 51 points 1 day ago (3 children)

They've backed off this and ended the partnership, claim Flock never got any footage, which I think is a total lie.

They'll re-partner when the heat is off, or just do it silently, Amazon shouldn't be trusted. Explain why to your friends and neighbors.

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[–] MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip 59 points 1 day ago (1 children)

"They aren't just tracking lost dogs, they're tracking you and your neighbors,"

Uh, yeah. You didn't get the news about them sharing with ICE?

[–] Rekorse@sh.itjust.works 16 points 1 day ago (4 children)

I think the majority of people don't even have tech conversations with their friends and coworkers, they just talk about sports or gambling or whatever else normal people do.

[–] MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip 7 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Talking trivia instead of consequential stuff...

[–] Rekorse@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 day ago

If I could figure out how to engage with your nonsense I would.

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[–] melfie@lemy.lol 21 points 1 day ago

Maybe next time they’re thinking of spending $8M on a Super Bowl ad, they can save themselves some money and pay me half that amount. I’m perfectly happy to tell everyone how Ring cameras are a privacy nightmare and recommend Reolink instead.

[–] nutsack@lemmy.dbzer0.com 44 points 1 day ago (12 children)

just get a Chinese one like tapo so that the Chinese government can spy on you instead

[–] Zwrt@lemmy.sdf.org 44 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Or hear me out,

Buy one that stores its data only on your local network and does not rely on corporate cloud or servers in any way or form.

This counts for all most all consumer home technology.

People should think about a NASS or Home servers like they do about owning a vehicle.

[–] myfunnyaccountname@lemmy.zip 13 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Build a server….in this economy? With these component prices?

[–] Widukin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I just installed Linux on my old laptop, added a 4Tb SSD and some HDDs connected with a docking bay and voilà, I have a server. Getting into the software side, now that's a bit harder but manageable.

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[–] fossilesque@mander.xyz 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

You can get an old HP microserver on eBay for less than 100 bucks. Still runs fine. I threw debian on it. Great for starting out... I use mine for backups, services and Jellyfin. It gave my beloved 870 a home. :,)

[–] ssfckdt@lemmy.blahaj.zone 11 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Yeah right. Next you'll be telling people to get off corporate owned social media and use something without an algorithm.

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[–] 4grams@awful.systems 5 points 1 day ago

People should think about a NASS or Home servers like they do about owning a vehicle.

I wholeheartedly agree. Hell, home server/nas should be more common than cars, I don’t drive every day, but my data is used every minute of every day.

[–] ragas@lemmy.ml 33 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Which is actually better because the chinese have no jurisdiction in the USA.

[–] Hupf@feddit.org 17 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] Alcoholicorn@mander.xyz 17 points 1 day ago (1 children)

President Xi, my people yearn for freedom.

[–] elucubra@sopuli.xyz 11 points 1 day ago (2 children)

At the rate this is going, you may be saying this seriously soon

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[–] wendythedruid@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 22 hours ago

I went with industry standard localized cameras that I could rider python on two of my servers at home for. Id love to try to hack up a ring , see if I could extract out what makes it "evil" and leave the rest, to even a relay to another server or something.

Things I think about.

[–] Psythik@lemmy.world 47 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (8 children)

I honestly didn't know what they were thinking with that commercial. Why would you proudly advertise that you've built a massive surveillance network, during one of the most-watched yearly televised events too for that matter? Did they seriously believe that there wouldn't be a major backlash? I mean I appreciate the blunt honesty in that commercial so I'll give them credit for that.

[–] Coyote_sly@lemmy.world 1 points 12 hours ago

Because the most evil people on the planet are universally convinced that they're heroes.

[–] baggachipz@sh.itjust.works 11 points 1 day ago

My guess is that since Ring has a history of well-known collaborations with police and ICE, they wanted to re-frame their evil surveillance network as a way to save a puppy. Instead, lots of uninformed normies suddenly realized what those cameras are capable of, and had a huge negative reaction given the state of things.

[–] Tradwench@thelemmy.club 21 points 1 day ago

Tbh I think the people at the top still haven't caught up with the rapid changing sentiments among the population. My zero-tech-savy retired mother in-law was talking to me about Palantir the other day.

[–] hanrahan@slrpnk.net 22 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I honestly didn't know what they were thinking with that commercial. Why would you proudly advertise that you've built a massive surveillance network

Presumably because most end users are in deep with the "if you do nothing wrong, you have nothing to worry about" crowd ... and besides it can find a lost dog /s.

They brought these sorts of intrusive cameras in the first place so privacy was not top of mind, or even in 2nd or 3rd place.

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[–] teft@piefed.social 334 points 1 day ago (8 children)

I hope what really gets people to pay attention is how the FBI said they searched that news ladies' moms' ring camera footage even though she didn't have an active subscription.

[–] UnspecificGravity@piefed.social 228 points 1 day ago (24 children)

It was a NEST camera from Google, which is only a meaningful distinction because it means they ALL do this shit.

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[–] partofthevoice@lemmy.zip 51 points 1 day ago (9 children)

My wife and I recently moved to a home with ring cameras preinstalled, but no subscription of course. We can only access a live feed via the cloud service. I told my wife, I don’t think it matters whether we have a subscription or not… if they want to use the footage from our home cameras for any reason at all, it’s in their power to do so. They can save it, scan it, watch it, … they don’t even need to save the video, they can save results from a scan to get out the important details more efficiently.

My wife didn’t want to hear it. She said we aren’t paying them, so there’s nothing they can do. Then this news story dropped about Google Nest. I showed my wife. We no longer have the ring cameras.

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[–] Agent641@lemmy.world 36 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Imagine spending millions of dollars on an ad that costs your company millions more in lost sales

[–] FurryMemesAccount@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

And reduced usage by existing customers, reduced network effect, etc...

[–] Buffy@libretechni.ca 7 points 1 day ago (2 children)

WiFi connected cameras were a mistake. Although, if people are going to use these mass surveillance devices, using it to find dogs is great. It needs cat detection too.

[–] spaghettiwestern@sh.itjust.works 2 points 21 hours ago

Running cables is not possible in lots of homes and there are plenty of wired cameras that send video to corporate clouds. The mistake is allowing those corporations access to those videos. Camera output should be encrypted and only usable for the camera owner unless they choose to opt in to the corporate spy network.

[–] rumba@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 day ago

WiFi connected cameras were a mistake.

Double so, when people are doing auto thefts in neighborhoods, they're using wifi jammers to block out the footage

[–] stylusmobilus@aussie.zone 2 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

Why would you wire your house up to this shit anyway.

[–] echodot@feddit.uk 1 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Personally are you like the idea of having security cameras on my house because they increase security in the same way that a prominent burglar alarm deters theft.

I can even see why these things been internet connected is appealing, it means the cameras can be accessed remotely when you're out and about and people can't just break in and then take the recording device.

[–] stylusmobilus@aussie.zone 1 points 11 hours ago

That can be run without Ring, Alexa or any other smart house crap.

[–] devedeset@lemmy.zip 21 points 1 day ago (6 children)

I put Google cameras on my house years ago out of convenience and this is it, I'm spending the money on a PoE system where my footage stays on my own hardware.

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[–] 14th_cylon@lemmy.zip 103 points 1 day ago (17 children)

the problem with these fucking things is that you can't really opt out. even if you don't buy your own, some neighbours will happily buy and install the big brother to watch you from their porch and there is very little you can do about it.

same as you can't really escape the google, even if you don't use single one of their service, there is always the other part to any communication you are having...

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[–] Etterra@discuss.online 31 points 1 day ago (8 children)

My only regret is that I can't smash one because was never stupid enough to trust these things to begin with.

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[–] mlg@lemmy.world 57 points 1 day ago (2 children)

My personal choice for security stuff is ubiquiti, but I'm sure someone here can find a super cheap doorbell camera that saves to an SD card and accomplishes the same thing.

I'm really glad people didn't just fall over for this ad, and connected the dots on what Amazon is doing

[–] AspieEgg@lemmy.blahaj.zone 34 points 1 day ago (8 children)

Reolink doorbell cameras don’t need to be connected to the cloud. They can record to an SD card or upload to an FTP server. You can connect to them with RTSP and run your own NVR if you want too.

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[–] dukemirage@lemmy.world 128 points 1 day ago (8 children)

If your stupid gadget needs a separate proprietary app that demands internet access, anticipate that all data is shared for all kinds of shady business.

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[–] DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 18 points 1 day ago (6 children)

my next door neighbor has a camera that seems to look like a ring... I mean I'm not gonna approach their door for no reason to check if it is a ring, but like... if it is a ring... then oh well, NSA is right by my door.

And I'm in a deep blue city btw... neighbor is a renter and is Black, so.... yeah... minority working class inadvertantly have a spy camera on their door

Front door is like right next to each other... like the camera can see me walking in the the path into my own house, it makes a sound when it detects movement and I heard the sound thing trigger even when walking only on my side of the yard

...And my family are immigrants...

so yay, our movements are probably in an ICE database

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[–] veni_vedi_veni@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

does anyone have a link to the original superbowl ad?

Found it: https://youtu.be/hiaIHLwJvPQ?t=1449

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