Home security and law enforcement — is it worth it?

General
#1

It’s fairly well-known that many home security platforms share data with law enforcement agencies when served with a warrant to do so, but it seems that Ring (owned by Amazon) also allows agencies to request footage without user consent in “emergency situations”. These requests are processed internally by Ring and are not subject to any independent oversight.

How do people feel about this? If you have/would purchase a home security camera, does the law enforcement cooperation policies of the vendor factor into your buying decision?

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#2

Interesting take here! This is something i haven’t paid much attention to but thinking about it, I certainly dont feel comfortable about that. This would definitely be something to consider if i was purchasing one.

Whats a bit frustrating when i think about it is how most average users don’t know about some of these clauses.

#3

The ignorance of consumers is intentional as manufacturers don’t want to advertise just how far their cooperation with law enforcement extends.

There are many who have the “why does it matter?” mindset, but plenty more (like me), who would definitely be put off buying a product from a vendor who embraces such practises.

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#4

It’s not just law enforcement that we have to worry about:

There have also been stories about smart TVs sharing audio recordings over the internet. E.g. several years ago, it was reported that Samsung TVs share the data with a third-party speech recognition specialist called Nuance (now owned by Microsoft):