Ring doorbell camera - what are the easiest private alternatives?
Ring doorbell camera - what are the easiest private alternatives?
Family just got one of these dumb things and I need a quick replacement option to order and return this crap. What is there that works offline and I can set up to work with fruit phones? (Not a fruit phone/fruit salad user)
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Reolink or Amcrest
Reolink has had some concerns over privacy, and transparency. You're required to use their app, even if you're linked into HomeAssisstant/Frigate. Most of their cameras also don't offer continuous recording, which has made me really regretting my Reolink E1 Outdoor.
Yeah. FOSS or fuck 'em. I am on Graphene and will never install anything from google. Android means the app is on F-Droid. If it is on the google proprietary framework, it is not Android.
Permanently Deleted
Frigate is a camera server. In order to link Reolink into it you're required to download their app, register for an account, and then setup your server. The fact that you're required to download their app, and make an account is the problem.
It's entirely possible I missed some method of doing this that doesn't have this problem, but google turned up no results when I was setting it up.
Maybe the doorbell/wifi cams are different but that is definitely not the case of my PoE cam. Never used the app, just using the RTSP stream.
Same.
The battery powered cameras and doorbells wake on motion and as far as I can tell do not support rtsp sadly.
As others have said you can set these Reolink PoE cameras up on different systems without using their app forever.
I for one have set up Reolink cameras on Synology's Surveillance Station successfully after a one time setup with Reolink's app. Meaning I used their app to get it connected to my WiFi and then immediately set the camera's DNS etc. to it's own IP.
Once that was accomplished I set up the camera on Synology and now I only use Synology's app for access. In no way does Reolink successfully phone home after this. While it isn't ideal it's pretty great once this is completed.
Amcrest have way too much crap they collect; telemetry, location, and 3rd party info sharing. I saw no mention of how they are processing data. The "we can change this at any time and it's up to you to figure it out" policy is all I ever need to know. This says 'this doc is all about how much we f$$$ you over, for now, but maybe we'll double you up later without warning. https://amcrest.com/privacy-policy
Reolink is straight up using google analytics. Definitely not private either.
Well their privacy policy stops to matter when you firewall off the camera to only talk to local network/your server.
Yes but both of them will work offline. Just don't let it connect to the internet, that's the whole point