We'll merge the discussions into https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22165568, which was posted a bit earlier and has the original source. We'll also roll back the clock on it to give it some more front page time, since there's clearly still momentum to discuss it. Thanks!
Anything for a buck. Its one thing if the product is free and you are being sold out as a user, its something else when you are a paying customer and not a mere user.
Wow such surprise. How many articles like this do you need to understand that every single internet connected object will collect your data ?
I'm getting bored to read the same thing everyday.
Actually, they are paying at least MixPanel to take this data and probably giving a bunch of the rest for access to other data/tools like crash reporting.
Around 500,000 people have died in Iraq since the US invaded [1] and maybe 147,000 in Afghanistan [2]. Police kill ~1000 people in the US/year [3].
But what are we worried about?
Doorbell data collected by Facebook and Google.
Remind me how many people have died from online privacy issues again?
This is going to be an unpopular opinion but so be it: along with nonsense like plastic straws this is yet another example of white people problems.
It must be nice to be so wealthy and immune the crueler realities of the universe that you can worry about worthless nonproblems like these. But sure, downvote away, tell me how important it is that videos of who rang your doorbell in white suburbia be protected with end-to-end AES 256 encryption.
I wonder about that, after looking at HNs level of response to privacy issues.
First, if you look at the number of topics covering privacy issues on this site it completely dwarfs news about people getting killed in Ukraine, for example. But we can argue that's related to the interest of its readers, but then isn't exactly what the OP is complaining about, that the readers on HN seem more concerned about privacy than war and policy brutality?
Another aspect is the level of concern on such an article. If all we saw in reply to this kind of articles would be rational, healthy discussion about these issues at a level of emotional response that corresponds to how important these things are in the grand scheme of things that would be fine, because it makes easy to believe that the same persons would be much more worried about more serious issues. But unfortunately a lot of replies on this kind of privacy topics are so strong that I can only draw 2 conclusions: either those people don't care about more important issues and this seems like some of the most important problems they are facing in their life (that's what the OP is saying) _or_, maybe they do care about more important issues too but the response to those is likely going to be so strong that they would be completely irrational about it, which I guess is also possible, but sad.
Is this the laziest possible argument? It's close. Anyone with 3 seconds to spend on Google can find a nice pet problem that dwarves yours. Painting issues as "white people problems" is a nice way to bring race into something that had nothing to do with it.
If everyone were so easily disarmed as you, it would be simple to accomplish nefarious things. Simply remind people that someone out there is perpetrating a ReallyBadThing so that everyone wrings their hands about ReallyBadThing happening and doesn't worry about other MinorBadThings happening left and right.
Please don't take HN threads into off-topic flamewar like this. Obviously those things are more important than doorbell trackers. They're important than almost everything else that appears on HN, too. That's why the guidelines ask you not to do this—because otherwise every thread will become about something more important, and with increasing levels of rage.
Edit: since you've been using this account to break the site guidelines repeatedly, I've banned it. Creating accounts to do that with will eventually get your main account banned as well, so please don't do that.
> But the EFF said Ring was failing to protect users' privacy, noting only one of the trackers it had found was mentioned in the company's privacy policy.
Wow. We're fast approaching a dystopian future where privacy will no longer be at all possible.
Aren't Ring doorbells something you purchase? Then how can they treat your data like this? It's not it's a free product you're using in exchange for tracking and ads.
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[ 8.1 ms ] story [ 64.2 ms ] threadDiscussion from yesterday (same report posted on boingboing): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22165985
But what are we worried about?
Doorbell data collected by Facebook and Google.
Remind me how many people have died from online privacy issues again?
This is going to be an unpopular opinion but so be it: along with nonsense like plastic straws this is yet another example of white people problems.
It must be nice to be so wealthy and immune the crueler realities of the universe that you can worry about worthless nonproblems like these. But sure, downvote away, tell me how important it is that videos of who rang your doorbell in white suburbia be protected with end-to-end AES 256 encryption.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_Iraq_War
[2] https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/costs/human/civilians/af...
[3] https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/national/police...
That's so banal.
First, if you look at the number of topics covering privacy issues on this site it completely dwarfs news about people getting killed in Ukraine, for example. But we can argue that's related to the interest of its readers, but then isn't exactly what the OP is complaining about, that the readers on HN seem more concerned about privacy than war and policy brutality?
Another aspect is the level of concern on such an article. If all we saw in reply to this kind of articles would be rational, healthy discussion about these issues at a level of emotional response that corresponds to how important these things are in the grand scheme of things that would be fine, because it makes easy to believe that the same persons would be much more worried about more serious issues. But unfortunately a lot of replies on this kind of privacy topics are so strong that I can only draw 2 conclusions: either those people don't care about more important issues and this seems like some of the most important problems they are facing in their life (that's what the OP is saying) _or_, maybe they do care about more important issues too but the response to those is likely going to be so strong that they would be completely irrational about it, which I guess is also possible, but sad.
You’re totally just spouting a false dilemma.
Guess what, I can not use plastic straws, be worried about video collection, AND police brutality! Crazy, right?
But go use your plastic straws, because you’re WOKE to the real issues.
If everyone were so easily disarmed as you, it would be simple to accomplish nefarious things. Simply remind people that someone out there is perpetrating a ReallyBadThing so that everyone wrings their hands about ReallyBadThing happening and doesn't worry about other MinorBadThings happening left and right.
https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
Edit: since you've been using this account to break the site guidelines repeatedly, I've banned it. Creating accounts to do that with will eventually get your main account banned as well, so please don't do that.
Wow. We're fast approaching a dystopian future where privacy will no longer be at all possible.
Aren't Ring doorbells something you purchase? Then how can they treat your data like this? It's not it's a free product you're using in exchange for tracking and ads.