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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Neighbours Ring doorbell

138 replies

Mumz3 · 17/09/2020 09:21

So I live in a block of flats and noticed earlier my neighbour has installed a Ring doorbell which directly faces my flat door. There’s a fire door between our flats so unless it’s open she won’t be recording my actual door all the time but as far as I know these doorbells record any motion they sense for 20/30 seconds? So she’s recording the communal close area whenever someone passes her door (which is very often because her flat is directly to the left of the main door) and I do have to walk past her door to get to the letterboxes or to take my bins out. She’ll inadvertently record anyone that comes to my flat thru the main door as well (so that’s everyone that visits me) and my son at primary school age will be recorded every time he goes to school and back. There is a back door to the flats that I can use but it means a detour round the car park to get to the letterbox or to go to the bin shed. Am I being unreasonable to want her to take the doorbell down?

OP posts:
Keratinsmooth · 17/09/2020 12:24

I would be delighted that I was benefiting from the added security and not having to pay for it. Unless you have concerns about your neighbour stalking you?

Surely she could step out of her door and see you coming and going? How is this any different?

MintyMabel · 17/09/2020 12:25

First option as you described but it costs us additionally annually, I think it's something like £70 for that feature but I could be completely wrong.

The additional cost is only to be able to review footage later. You can still have motion sense without the package, you just can’t review it later.

Daisy12Maisie · 17/09/2020 12:28

I think it's a massive positive for you.
Can only help if you are a victim of crime.

justjustine7 · 17/09/2020 12:29

I have a Ring that records everything and I'd like to add that it going off when someone walks past is ANNOYING. I am sure she will turn that off if she gets that much traffic. I ignore mine unless someone presses it or if an event happens I need to get to the bottom off (cars were broken into recently)

Original poster
Mumz3 · 17/09/2020 12:33

Haha @FunorFitness most definitely not. 3 kids and the youngest a few weeks old if only I had the time 😂😂 I just have a thing about privacy and imo she’s always been a gossip so I do worry she will watch my comings and goings regardless of how innocent and boring they are (i can see how it would sound like I’m up to something 🤭😂) I just find it invasive and creepy to be perfectly honest whether she watches them or not it’s possible that she could and I don’t like that. Can understand what everyone’s saying about security etc but we have the buzzer system so if people use it properly we should be fine.

OP posts:
unmarkedbythat · 17/09/2020 12:34

I really dislike these and am always a bit annoyed when I say so and people tell me how no, actually, my concerns are daft and it's a good thing for me to have my privacy so invaded. But I don't take well to the "nothing to hide then nothing to fear" line anyway. It's creepy. I don't have to be up to no good not to want to be watched and recorded!

CausingChaos2 · 17/09/2020 12:38

Yanbu. She shouldn’t be recording beyond her own home if she respects her neighbours privacy.

PinkSparklyPussyCat · 17/09/2020 12:38

I really dislike these and am always a bit annoyed when I say so and people tell me how no, actually, my concerns are daft and it's a good thing for me to have my privacy so invaded. But I don't take well to the "nothing to hide then nothing to fear" line anyway. It's creepy. I don't have to be up to no good not to want to be watched and recorded!

I wasn’t sure when we first got ours but it came in very handy when we discovered our previous cat sitter wasn’t bothering to stay for the length of time we were paying for, we’d never have known otherwise, or that she given our key to someone we didn’t know!

Original poster
Mumz3 · 17/09/2020 12:42

@goldierocks I’m sorry to hear that. And I don’t think that setting would work as any visitor coming through the front door will have to pass her flat before they get to mines there’s no way around it. And for other posters I don’t see it as additional security that I’m benefiting from, I thinks it’s unnecessary given there’s been 1 burglary in the 10 years I’ve lived here. I think it’s disproportionate to the level of risk.

OP posts:
CausingChaos2 · 17/09/2020 12:44

Also her security concerns don’t trump your right to privacy.

YellowandGreenToBeSeen · 17/09/2020 12:47

@lunar1

Mine isn't set to record, I can bring it up on the live view but not look back over old footage. That's the paid for subscription which records motion.

You can also set it so you determine the proximity that the sensor picks up, I make sure mine only does to the boundary of our drive, maybe she could set hers really short so you have to be at the door for it to register.

This is how mine is set up too. Doesn’t record & only shows a set range and distance.
Marisishidinginmyattic · 17/09/2020 12:48

Why does everyone keep saying “but you have to pay to record it so don’t worry” as if costing money means she won’t have bothered with it? If she’s bought the Ring, it’s not much of a stretch to assume she’s bought the full package. People in HA properties have money for annual fees too you know 😂

SafeInBed · 17/09/2020 13:09

I don't get the issue. So it records you going in and out of your flat, just as it would if the landlord installed cctv except that would record more often.

Our landlord told us to get a spy cam to put in front of our door and it would essentially record the enire communal hall and anyone coming out or in to the other 3 flats, but someone has been putting graffiti outside our door on the walls and we need to prove who it is.

SafeInBed · 17/09/2020 13:11

don't have to be up to no good not to want to be watched and recorded!

If you walk down the street people can record you all they want. I don't see the difference.

CausingChaos2 · 17/09/2020 13:19

@SafeInBed

don't have to be up to no good not to want to be watched and recorded!

If you walk down the street people can record you all they want. I don't see the difference.

There is a difference, the OP is reasonable to expect privacy when she’s at home.

It could also be used for nefarious reasons if the neighbour was a wrong’un and could see exactly when her neighbours properties were empty.

ThePluckOfTheCoward · 17/09/2020 13:27

I wouldn't be happy about that Op, especially at the thought she could be recording your DC. The fact she is a gossip makes it even more worrying.

MintyMabel · 17/09/2020 13:33

Also her security concerns don’t trump your right to privacy.

Do we have a right to privacy in a public area? There’s no law that stops someone seeing who goes in to my home.

SafeInBed · 17/09/2020 13:39

There is a difference, the OP is reasonable to expect privacy when she’s at home.

Outside her door is a communal area, not her home.

BigusBumus · 17/09/2020 13:41

We have a lot of CCTV at our property, 10 cameras in all and continuous recording. The ones that pick up neighbours houses, i went round to each and asked if they would like their house "masked", that is creating a black rectangle around their houses and NONE of them said yes. They are all pleased that their houses have the security too.

The least she should have done is ask you first.

Craddle64 · 17/09/2020 13:53

I'd be happy there is added security and couldnt careless if im recorded as i pass by. I have nothing to hide and if something happened then it will hopefully be evidence in my favour. There are bigger privacy concerns online than that imo.

Iminaglasscaseofemotion · 17/09/2020 13:56

And there's cctv all over the place. When you walk down the street and go into shops, you are being filmed. Whats the problem?

newsyoucanuse · 17/09/2020 14:02

I wouldn't like this. People are odd, and do stuff all the time that they aren't supposed to. Our neighbour across the road let slip that he likes to keep his camera on all the time and live stream from his phone when he's at work. For no other reason than he can, and see who's going up and down the street. We're on a road with a school, right by the gates so he sees the kids going in and out.
I think it's a bit weird. Why does he bother? I realise that he could sit at his window all day and watch the street too in theory but he doesn't and I would find that odd too...

We're too quick in this country to embrace this big brother camera culture - I think we give up too much privacy for the 'good' all these cameras bring...

ohbrightlight · 17/09/2020 14:13

Before you complain OP go and knock on your neighbours door and talk to her. It could be that it’s not recording and storing the video, she could set up an exclusion zone or she can explain to you why she has one.

Maybe she feels unsafe in her flat now there has been a burglary and that isn’t a crime.

mummydoingamasters · 17/09/2020 14:19

I live in a block of flats and I have a ring door bell. Mine faces the neighbours door also (I actually thought this was about me it was so similar).
Mine is not set to record, I have to pay a monthly fee to keep any activity footage over 30 days and I've turned off motion alerts but you wouldn't know it unless I showed you the app.

I live in an area with a moderate level of crime and I see it as security but I can also see the flip side of someone assuming that they are being recorded.

Do you have a good enough relationship to ask them if there's a reason they got it?

Astella22 · 17/09/2020 14:45

I one who is in the it’s a positive camp. I think if your doorway was in your own private drive/hall way then I wouldn’t like it so much but your hall is shared and she probably already hears all the comings and going’s you do so I can’t say the ability to potentially record this activity is going to far or breaching my privacy.
Have a chat and see how u feel afterwards