this post was submitted on 16 Jul 2025
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Privacy

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I need help advocating for privacy in my HOA, which wants to set up cameras in common areas (lemmy.dbzer0.com)
submitted 1 day ago by NaNin@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/privacy@lemmy.world
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A new neighbor moved in and is really advocating for them, but I think most people in the HOA are split. It's come up after some recent thefts after someone left a garage door open. I'm thinking of organizing my arguments like this:

  1. Even with a camera capturing a thief's face, police are unlikely to actually catch the person or retreive the stolen property.
  2. Invasion of personal privacy, I don't like being tracked and my whereabouts being monitored
  3. Surrendering biometric data without my consent
  4. Police / ICE using the data without permission to harass our residents

How does this sound? It's so exhausting fighting against this. Does anyone have any other good points or articles that can provide support? Many thanks in advance

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[–] Retro_unlimited@lemmy.world 6 points 20 hours ago

Cheap cameras often have bad side effects.

Amazon cameras stream everything to Amazon. There was a story where a delivery guy heard the camera wrong and reported it to Amazon, then Amazon disabled their Amazon account and it disabled their entire smart home. Amazon also gives all the footage to police, even when nothing wrong has happened.

Arlo cameras were sold as “local” but still uploaded to their cloud, and everyone has access by guessing the URL, there was no password or anything.

Lots of these cheaper cameras have so many flaws.

I have 2 camera systems. Offline local system that just records if anything happens, no internet at all.

I have another system that I have cameras in specific places (like the driveway) and I can get notifications of any movement.

It’s really, really hard to find a good one, thats also secure. Also does it have to be online?