Looking for some perspective on this, interested how y’all think about it and if I’m isolated in my concerns.
I’ve grown to be a bit anxious when I’m out and about in any neighborhood. The wide use of doorbell cameras that connect to the internet and save data on company servers, listen in to your conversations, and could be used for spying on you as an individual gives me a sinking feeling.
I like walking around, I walk my dogs around the neighborhood and I know my neighbors. I’ve started being so aware that it’s changing my habits. I don’t turn my face towards houses while I’m walking if I notice a doorbell camera, and I’ve put my shirt over my face when dropping off something to a neighbor who has one. I probably gave them a fright but I don’t feel like I should’ve expected to be OK with you surviving me in a way that compromises my privacy that expansively. I’m considering keeping a bandana with me to cover my face if I need to go up to a door, but of course that would make people think I’m a bad actor and just a paranoid privacy nut.
I feel a bit like Winston in the 1984 novel, always feeling watched and trying to find an isolated corner where I can’t be seen. How have y’all been feeling on this? Would love to get perspective, thanks
You are right to be wary of that behavior as it is spreading.
That being said I believe it’s good to be mindful of the “paranoid privacy nut” in the sense that… WHO are you concerned might have WHICH information about you?
I don’t know you but… if I were to find your name I could find your address or at least roughly where you live. In fact depending on what you post one could potentially know your neighborhood without even knowing your name. Now I didn’t know you had a pet, now I do. That being said even without a pet… if you live somewhere you are expected to walk around your neighborhood. It might be to go buy milk, help neighbors, drop mail, etc. There is relatively no new information there. Your neighbors might know you are around, their doorbell cameras might have footage of you doing so… and what? How is the confirmation that a perfectly average behavior is indeed coherent? What also NOT having that footage bring? Maybe you are traveling and thus not with your pet but maybe you also are sick.
So… I agree with you that all those cameras with footage are not healthy but also what do they genuinely add or remove? I would argue in principle a lot but in practice not so much. I would even argue to biggest impact is unwarranted stress and concerns, the chilling effect.
Walk freely however you want, it’s your neighborhood, ignore the cameras.
PS: as someone already pointed out, one does not need video cameras to track your movement and patterns, using wireless signal (5G/4G, WiFi, BT) on your phone is enough.
“I have nothing to hide.”
But yeah, you’re correct in finding comfort that it is not adding or removing much to the data pool for this one guy. I think minorities like myself should be more worried but it just depends on the threat model.
In fine it is about the threat model, always.
That being said I never said “I have nothing to hide” nor do I believe we as a society should accept the permanent surveillance of civilians. In fact I do believe the opposite and that the chilling effect, as highlighted here by OP, does have a toll on everyone.