I read this a while back and am already taking action to replace my Ring cams and doorbell with locally controlled Reolink cameras. I already have them set up and working on my desk, just need to finish the actual install. I am currently trying to figure out why I'm getting <12v on my doorbell circuit.
this post was submitted on 14 Nov 2025
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Hot take : almost no one actually needs security cameras in their home.
For the very few who do, visible fake cameras do 95% of the job of real cameras with none of the drawbacks.
EDIT : I'll go even further and say an official looking sticker / plaque that says something like "this house has cameras" does at least 50% of the work already.
Raspberry pi + pi camera + camera case connected to wifi is way better anyway and doesn‘t steal your data
The only drawbacks to having actual security cameras is when you trust your data to a 3rd party known to use your data for evil.
If you record things locally, there's really zero drawbacks.
Hypothetically the police could come with a warrant and force you to hand over the footage you recorded. It's a higher barrier than if footage is being uploaded to the cloud, but it can still happen.
And even if the cameras are not uploading their footage to the cloud, it still wouldn't sit well with me if every other house has a camera pointed at the public street
Where I live it is technically illegal to record the public street with an automated camera, but it's not really being enforced. So there is Ring cameras everywhere.
If some shit went down that would require a warrant for the data then I'm guessing I'd probably know and be able to make copies or remove the data beforehand.
That's annoying (or at least, takes some work) to set up, and more expensive.
Out of order cameras are basically (sometimes literally) free, need no wiring work, and don't "accidentally" record any embarrassing / private moments you then have to delete !
Sure, the effort to set up an actual working thing will always be more than setting up a broken thing.
i need them inside for my cats i like to look at them. but im using chinese cameras with a home server. there's hours of me wacking off saved on there by now
But they let me see who is at the door without coming up from the basement.
you could use a periscope
But what if they smack it so it spins around and hits me like in a cartoon? Not sure I can take that risk.
Alexa isn't much better. Pretty sure Spanish can be easily distinguished.
Alexa is also the linchpin of Amazon Sidewalk which is opt-out and potentially gives a way for devices in your home (like smart appliances) to connect to the internet whether you give them wifi access or not. Pretty handy surveillance tool.
But don't worry, we've only made Jeff Bezo's powerful enough to rent Venice for his wedding.
Unfortunately I recently purchased a couple of ring cameras. Are there any alternatives? One with an app and data base with a similar subscription?
Try whatever plus into homeassistant, if anything.
Reolink is what I use. Fairly similar in utility and options. Prices are ok but they go on sale pretty often. Poe, solar, and battery options for power.
Friendly reminder that Reolink cameras need to be denied internet access / isolated on the network because they constantly reach out to a bunch of Chinese IP addresses.
+1 vote for Reolink
I use Wyze but they have their own issues....
I don’t know if they are any better, but I use Tapo/tplink cameras. No subscription required if you use it with an sd card, but they have a subscription plan for cloud storage.