Ring door bells etc

@maccruiskeen you’d have to be quite thick to have that conversation though 😂

Another vote for Eufy doorbell, used at home and work. The later versions do AI facial recognition and will not alert for the family going in and out. The home one is hard-wired, the work one is on battery and needs recharging every 3 months.
They’re finally getting their act together on privacy too having said they weren’t pulling footage to the cloud to do their own facial recognition when they were.

They’re finally getting their act together on privacy too having said they weren’t pulling footage to the cloud to do their own facial recognition when they were.

ha, that is really shit. Not heard about that – only 2 months ago this came out? And apparently anyone could connect to the unencrypted stream and watch it via VNC 😂 why would you trust them after that? 🤷‍♂️

@cougar I don’t think Ring record constantly but certainly any detections etc will result in video & audio being sent to Amazon which you have basically agreed they can use for whatever purpose they want (including keeping it after you’ve deleted it). They also retain logs of all activity which they can use alongside data harvested in other ways to piece together a lot of info about you, might not bother you much but it’s pretty interesting what some of these companies get up to (eg Spotify targeting you with specific adverts depending on your mood, which it deduces from your music choice!)
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/ring-doorbell-camera-amazon-privacy

Again,

“Huh?”

Where in that link does it suggest that your Ring AV data is being sent to Amazon?

Blink here too. Received as a gift. It does record to the sync box via USB, but only after the free trial has finished or you’ve ended it. Why? cos it’s Amazon and they want the cloud revenue. So as a result and from what I’ve read you’ve got to dick about deleting the sync box and re-adding it back in order for it to force to USB recording. I’ve read you then get recordings but no thumbnail view. No biggie though. My trial is still running so I’m waiting for it to end, but they do seem better than the Ring where you’re tied in to a sub if you need recordings.

I also bought a new second gen echo dot from eBay for £13 (which I permanently mute) this handles the chime in the house. Shame an internal chime device isn’t supplied. Those Eufy doorbells look great and their cameras are excellent.

Where in that link does it suggest that your Ring AV data is being sent to Amazon

@cougar granted that particular link doesn’t explicitly say it, but do you really think they aren’t sharing the data they’ve mined with their parent company, the worlds biggest data miner? Thought you were STW’s resident cynic?! 😂 (Read through the T&Cs you’ve signed if you need it spelt out)

eg Spotify targeting you with specific adverts depending on your mood, which it deduces from your music choice!

Pretty sure I’ve never seen an advert from Spotify? How do they serve them?

Pretty sure I’ve never seen an advert from Spotify? How do they serve them?

free tier has ads

free tier has ads

Completely forgot there was a free tier!

ha, that is really shit. Not heard about that – only 2 months ago this came out? And apparently anyone could connect to the unencrypted stream and watch it via VNC 😂 why would you trust them after that? 🤷‍♂️

And Eufy is an Anker brand!!

And Eufy is an Anker brand!!

yeah. I mean, I trust them to make electronics which won’t burn my house down, not necessarily with my data or having to rely on them for cloud services!

@cougar granted that particular link doesn’t explicitly say it, but do you really think they aren’t sharing the data they’ve mined with their parent company, the worlds biggest data miner? Thought you were STW’s resident cynic?!

Why do you think I’m being cynical? 😁

I didn’t actually know that Amazon owned Ring (I’ve since checked). I knew they owned blink and, rather naively, assumed that they wouldn’t need to own and maintain both brands.

I didn’t actually know that Amazon owned Ring

fair enough, not sure how that escaped you tho! Even the headline of that article was “Amazon’s Ring Cameras” 😃

I knew they owned blink and, rather naively, assumed that they wouldn’t need to own and maintain both brands.

Wouldn’t be surprised if they merged Blink into Ring or just dropped it at some point. They already discontinued their original line (Cloud Cam) after they bought Blink.

Dredging this back up as I the wife wants a smart doorbell. Things I think we need:

– be able to interact with people at the door via phone
– battery but with long life (no power sockets near door/in porch)

Thats it! Not fussed about recording stuff etc or being able to sit and see baddies on my driveway when I’m on holiday etc.

What are my options? Got Alexas in the house we can use as chimes (is that a Ring only thing?)…

We just picked up a Blink doorbell and outside camera in the Amazon Prime Day offer. Fitted them today and they seem just the job. Fulfil your requirements perfectly.

if you’ve an existing wired doorbell the ring can replace that and use the power feed to power itself, and ring the existing ding-dong, no need for a separate chime.

I’ll take a look at the Blink. Existing doorbell is a battery thing…

Blink can also be wired but comes with batteries.

I’ve just bought a eufy doorbell plus base station. Battery powered but planning to add a wire eventually.

So far seems fine. Android app a bit puzzling in places.

No monthly contract which is nice

I have a Ring bell. It rinsed through its battery and unscrewing it from the door every three weeks to put it on charge got old fast so I punched a hole in the door and ran a cable to it, doorbell transformers can be had from Amazon et al for not much money and you can run bell wire for miles.

If you’re going to run a Ring on batteries I would suggest one or more of: something with a replaceable battery so you can have a spare; the solar backplate for it (obvs location-dependent); switching off motion detection.