News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Xiaomi camera playing on Google home hub sends stills from other people's homes. Parent comment

Re:Xiaomi camera playing on Google home hub sends stills fro... by lambdadmitry on Thursday January 02, 2020 @04:03PM (#21939789)
What I genuinely don't understand is why do you even need them. Do they somehow deter burglars? Unlikely, unless there is hard data showing that they do. Did the US somehow degenerate into a war zone lately, because everyone managed (and still manages outside the US!) to survive without those, but Americans suddenly need those cameras? Besides, what would you even do if a. you're away from your home b. a camera detects something c. you're near your phone at the moment (which isn't given at all, you're pretty likely to be asleep or busy)? Call the cops from the other side of the world and hope they come in time? Activate claymores or giant battle robots?

How come Amazon and others apparently convinced millions of middle class Americans in the space of just a few years that they absolutely require 24/7 surveillance in and around their houses? Are you that scared of your compatriots?

It's even more puzzling than gun worship tbh

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Xiaomi camera playing on Google home hub sends stills fro... by chrisp_dc on Thursday January 02, 2020 @04:14PM (#21939901)
I use my cameras to check in on my cat when I am out of town. Typically a friend only visits briefly once a day and I get peace of mind out of knowing that the cat is eating. If the cat was not eating, I'd ask a friend to take it to the vet or to sit with a while to make sure it eats.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Xiaomi camera playing on Google home hub sends stills fro... by rconti on Thursday January 02, 2020 @04:36PM (#21940128)
Ditto. I have 4 wyzecams I setup around the house when we go on vacation. Then I unplug them and put them in a box as soon as I return.

And for Mr "Irrational fears", no, I do it for entertainment, not because BigEvilCorp taught me to be afraid.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Xiaomi camera playing on Google home hub sends stills fro... by waste_monk on Thursday January 02, 2020 @06:45PM (#21941292)
If you use Wyze you should probably be aware of this:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/30/us/wyze-security-camera-b... https://forums.wyzecam.com/t/updated-12-29-19-data-leak-12-2... https://blog.12security.com/wyze/

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Xiaomi camera playing on Google home hub sends stills fro... by lambdadmitry on Thursday January 02, 2020 @04:21PM (#21939973)
Can't you just ask your friend to note if your cat ate during the day? I mean, they're probably refilling the bowls anyway, so they will notice if they're full

Also the whole notion of an imminent danger for a semi-wild animal in a big house with daily renewed water and food is a bit weird to me. It seems like Amazon&co just amplify the existing irrational fears, don't you think so?

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Xiaomi camera playing on Google home hub sends stills fro... by technofiend on Thursday January 02, 2020 @06:27PM (#21941124)
Warzone? No, but our homeless problem means people may choose to make use of your property in myriad ways. Anything from an open-air bathroom to a place to stash stolen goods. Ask me how I know. :-(

I have a nest camera pointing at my driveway. It's configured to use a zone that excludes the public sidewalk and street and only to alert me on seeing people. I really only expect alerts when my wife or the mailman comes and goes. The last time it alerted was actually the police walking across the property because I filled out an "alert slip" letting them know I was going to be gone for some time.

But the time prior to that was a homeless dude who ditched a bunch of stolen property in my yard and then came back to switch into his new stolen clothes. My wife went down and asked him to just go somewhere else mostly because this was the second time he'd done it and we didn't really want it to turn into a habit, much less for him to tell his buddies at the local homeless encampment "Hey, there's this great spot partially out of the public view...".

Unfortunately it turned into the guy screaming at my wife that she was a dumb bitch who couldn't tell him what to do, etc, etc. A police officer happened across all this as it was transpiring and ended up arresting the guy for trespassing. A big chunk of all this was caught on camera, including his using our driveway as a changing room the first time.

Hopefully that's the end of it and we never see this guy again, but if he comes around we have evidence of him trespassing previously and being told (on camera) to vacate the premises. It's just evidence if legal action needs to be taken.

[ Parent | on HN ]