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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think ring doorbells are intrusive?

139 replies

museumum · 11/01/2022 19:18

I’ve just discovered that my friends ring football starts recording audio when its motion sensor triggered.
Thank fuck we were only saying “you press it ds, it’s that one on the left” etc and not saying anything more personal or offensive but wtf?
AIBU to find it very intrusive to be recorded like that without knowing!

OP posts:
Bellex · 12/01/2022 08:18

They caught that police office that killed Sarah Everard by using ring doorbell footage as they could track her route. I also know someone that was able to find his stolen car by asking local people to look on their footage for it. He tracked from his house to where they’d taken (the police weren’t interested). I do think they’re beneficial, crime seems to be increasing and living alone as a female it gives me a sense of security.

TroysMammy · 12/01/2022 08:24

I was disappointed that I can't remotely tell people to get off my property if I see them on my cctv. I use mine to check on my cat and if there is a parking space outside my house before I leave work.

PassingByAndThoughtIdDropIn · 12/01/2022 08:24

@MistyGreenAndBlue

What has Amazon got to do with it? Mine came from QVC. My mum got it me when I was being harassed by an ex. Was very handy.

Also, yes to the fact I can hear conversations outside without it. People talk louder than they realise.

I no longer have the alerts on mine (it's not a doorbell just the camera) and I never bother watching the footage really.

They are an Amazon product and the data is stored on Amazon web servers. On the upside that's a large reasonably well run and accountable company that's not owned by China (I have Chinese dissident friends) and is unlikely to have any glaringly obvious security flaws or go bust and leave you in the lurch. On the downside, nobody trusts Amazon's ethics.
girlmom21 · 12/01/2022 08:27

On the adverts they do not show home owners listening to peoples chat as they walk up the path.

That'd because they don't unless there's a reason to. People don't sit there watching every time their camera is activated.

What personal conversation are you going to be having on your friends doorstep?

Ceramide · 12/01/2022 08:30

Your recorded in shops, by dash cams in cars, by CCTV on the street, why would a Ring doorbell be intrusive when we are watched pretty much everywhere we go?

Its astonishing how people just accept that we're being watched 'pretty much everywhere'. The default starting point should be that we are never watched.

huuskymam · 12/01/2022 08:33

I have a ring doorbell and would never get rid of it. Most of the time it's just my kids with their friends. But one night when my dh was working (night worker) he got an notification at about 2am. Someone was trying to break into my car, he phoned the police and they woke me, my phone was in silent. The police were here fairly quickly so no damage done. I like the security of knowing if someone is knocking on my door late at night, I can see them and talk to them through it, especially when it just me and the kids most nights.

girlmom21 · 12/01/2022 08:35

@Ceramide

Your recorded in shops, by dash cams in cars, by CCTV on the street, why would a Ring doorbell be intrusive when we are watched pretty much everywhere we go?

Its astonishing how people just accept that we're being watched 'pretty much everywhere'. The default starting point should be that we are never watched.

We wouldn't need to be watched if people weren't criminals. How many times has CCTV been the reason that a criminal has been sentenced? How many crimes have been deterred because of CCTV?
StrifeOfBath · 12/01/2022 08:40

Half the PP on this thread have missed that the OP’s concern is AUDIO recording. Recording private conversations.

People are oblivious. We are sleepwalking into all sorts of things. Missing the details of who has our data and what they could do with it…

Of course a motion triggered audio recording of people visiting your house without warning them is intrusive.

AmazingBouncingFerret · 12/01/2022 08:41

It gives me peace of mind when husband is working away. We live down a long drive and have large trees and a stream down a large embankment. Only people visiting us have any reason to be within the camera zones.
They helped when me morning we had a young man knock on the door saying we had his iPhone, it’s showing up at our address. We could show him the footage of him drunkenly stumbling down the driveway and attempting to climb the fence to get down the embankment. The phone must still be there because we never found it! He was very apologetic! Grin

SoupDragon · 12/01/2022 08:43

People don't sit there watching every time their camera is activated.

You don't. That doesn't meant it's true for everyone. There have been several threads on MN about neighbours with Ring doorbells.

SuspiciousHumanoid · 12/01/2022 08:45

I have one on my house. A few months ago I had a knock on the door from the police. They were trawling the area for CCTV footage to piece together the movements of suspects for a murder investigation. They downloaded several separate clips from my ring doorbell with footage of the suspects around the time that the murder took place. Apparently the clips were very helpful.

Make what you will of this but I personally was glad that my ring doorbell had been useful in a murder investigation.

Ceramide · 12/01/2022 08:47

We wouldn't need to be watched if people weren't criminals.

We have been sleepwalking into a surveillance society.

Glowtastic · 12/01/2022 08:50

YANBU, we don't have one, most of the neighbours do but it doesn't seem to do anything to deter would be break ins/people trying car doors. I hate the fact that my neighbours can see my comings and goings, getting out of cabs on my way back from nights out etc. It's intrusive. The fact we're accepting of this life of living under constant surveillance is worrying.

GingerAndTheBiscuits · 12/01/2022 08:52

I’ve only ever checked the audio on ours once, when I woke up to an alert in the early hours of the morning which showed someone approaching the house. Turned out to be next door’s teenager, drunkenly leaping the hedge between properties Grin

Ours is angled away from our neighbours’ and using the security settings I’ve blocked out any part which shows their property so they are never recorded on it when coming and going from their house. It’s set to the highest sensitivity so it only kicks in when someone is at the door, not when they walk up the path/walk past the house.

Darbs76 · 12/01/2022 08:55

My friends ring doorbell caught the amazon guy stealing a parcel left by Royal Mail a little earlier

Ileflottante · 12/01/2022 08:57

Do you normally make snide remarks about your friends behind their backs and are resentful you nearly got caught out?! Grin

Waynemanor · 12/01/2022 09:00

Goodness I never realised they recorded audio either! Must remember that !

user1471457354 · 12/01/2022 09:03

For anyone thats uses cctv/ring doorbells, I'm not sure if you are aware of this. It means your neighbours may be able to submit a Subject Access Request and you are required to provide with with images you hold of them.

ico.org.uk/your-data-matters/domestic-cctv-systems-guidance-for-people-using-cctv/

Lilifer · 12/01/2022 09:11

@saraclara

I hate all this. The concept of privacy seems to have been lost forever. Governments all over the world must be loving this blind compliance of the population to being monitored constantly.

To be clear, I have no problem with cctv security in public areas, our outside ones home. But when it comes to people having cameras running inside their homes (when they're in) and ring doorbells recording private conversations (seriously, what extra security from burglars does that achieve?), I'm appalled.

Being monitored anonymously in a shopping centre is one thing. Filming your friends inside your home without their knowledge (the subject of another recent thread) or recording their private conversation outside your door, is beyond intrusive.

If I found that any of my friends were doing this, they'd no longer be my friends.

100% agree
AlternativePerspective · 12/01/2022 09:14

The kinds of people who would check every interaction on their ring doorbell are the kind who would be curtain twitchers and nosy busy bodies before the intervention of ring doorbells.

Anyone who thinks that people watch every time their ring is activated clearly doesn’t realise just how often these things are activated. And anyone who actually does look, and listen every time their ring is activated clearly doesn’t have a job.

I have one because there were some dodgy door-to-door types wandering around the area recently, followed by someone chalking some kind of sign on my door number. I am a single parent and am generally home alone as DS is out at college or at work. I am also blind so could conceivably considered to be vulnerable.

I deactivated the notification for motion pretty early on as it was going off constantly. But recently when my DP had a refusal by a taxi company to carry his guide dog we were able to find the footage, along with the recording of the refusal, and send it to Uber to back up the complaint. My DP had another incident a couple of years ago where an Uber driver not only refused but sped off with the door already open, causing the door to slam as he drove off. It could blatantly have killed both DP and the dog, and if only he’d had a ring doorbell or camera footage it would have been treated as a criminal offence. As it was all that he could do was report to Uber and the council and the bloke’s licence was revoked.

saraclara · 12/01/2022 09:14

I don't know why this thread is filled with people talking about Ring doorbells in general, and not what the OP is about. Which is that they record people's (your friends' for instance) private conversations. That's very different from simply alerting you when someone is on your property.
It's only a small step to recording your friends' private conversations when they're IN your house.

@Ileflottante a conversation doesn't have to be snide for you not want it to be recorded or listened to by those for whom it's not intended.

PinkSparklyPussyCat · 12/01/2022 09:15

@HumbugWhale

Why does the ring have to be so loud?? A few of our neighbours have them and I can hear them from several doors away if the window is open. I find that pretty instrusive/annoying!
We've got an amplifier as well as DH is deaf!

I love our Ring, it caught our previous cat sitter out when she was spending less than 5 minutes looking after him and when she didn't bother even going in and sent her boyfriend instead.

Dottybackorcid · 12/01/2022 09:18

I have CCTV and a video door bell (not all are ring). My cars also have 360 cameras recording motion and audio in parking mode. I have assisted the police on a couple of occasions in my area with footage and audio and they have always been very appreciative of it.

People over hear your conversation on a daily basis, through doors, walls, on transport, inshops, in ques, when you walk past. The recordings are only usually a few seconds any way if recorded by devices, just to assist with identication if needed.

I only check mine if I have a reason, it's part of life, you just need to get used to it. It's just added security and peace of mind for many of us, and helps our neighbors if any thing ever happens.

Ileflottante · 12/01/2022 09:23

@Ileflottante a conversation doesn't have to be snide for you not want it to be recorded or listened to by those for whom it's not intended.

I know, I know. I was trying to make a bit of fun and lighten things up. Nevermind.

mumda · 12/01/2022 09:27

@MaybeHeIsMyCat

I have CCTV which also picks up audio. The people it's targeting like to get cross and make V signs at it but yeah, there's plenty of other CCTV on my road which isn't labelled! I did have a CCTV sign but it's been removed on police advice
Does the ICO know you record audio in public?