Hope this all fits here, I'm a bit 'long winded'...
Greetings ….
Have had Blink system for some while.
Now have 7 outdoor 4 cameras.
Really neat!
Up until about 7 or 8 months ago my ‘armed’ Blink cameras would sense motion and automatically trigger a recording.
My Blink subscription allowed my system to upload this video data to Blink to be stored in ‘the cloud’.
Once every 24 hours, a day’s worth of accumulated cloud video downloads from Blink into a memory stick that I plugged into my Blink hub device.
Ended up with lots and lots and lots of recordings of wind blown tree branches/ shadows plus a plethora of nighttime swarms of gnats and creepy (but fun to watch) spiders.
Well then…
The Blink folks (Amazon) must have decided that their cloud services were being overloaded with junk video from hundreds of thousands of cameras.
They began processing motion sensed video data transmitted to their services, apparently using AI to determine if the video showed persons, vehicles and ‘other’ (mostly animals like pets, horses, lions, tigers and bears (oh my!) and send just those to ‘cloud’ storage, ignoring everything else (swaying tree branches, bugs, shadows, etc,)
I’m cool with that…
And then, a few months ago, Blink went one step further with their new ‘Smart’ utility and gave me three choices, of which at least one had to be activated or my cameras would not function.
Choice 1 is to detect and record just persons.
Choice 2 is to detect and record just vehicles.
Choice 3 is ‘other’, which appear to be critters.
Seems that not choosing any of the three options would have resulted in their AI not saving anything at all to the cloud, which would essentially render the system useless.
So… Instructions say I gotta check off at least one.
Hey, Ya know...
Must be handy for those with lots of pedestrians, nearby road traffic or have cats, dogs and horses wandering sbout.
Hokay… I’ll go with that too.
(All three… of course!)
Now then, I had a disturbing thought..:
Might we assume that Blink Services AI intercepts all 7 of my ‘motion activated’ outdoor 4 camera video data sent to their server and sifts through them ‘on the fly’ to determine which are destined to be ‘cloud saved’?
Hmmnnn…
I guess I can go with that too.
Then the other day I got a notice saying:
‘There is a person bending over at the wooden deck.’
(Wooden deck? Hmmmnnnn.)
Of course, an Amazon delivery guy!
(Hey, is your boss watching?)
And then….
‘A white pickup truck is coming down the driveway’.
(That was me.)
And by next year????
‘Eloise is coming up the wooden stairs.’
Remote AI getting smarter still …
Yikes!
I am, of course, allowed an option to not provide Blink Services any ‘personal’ video data uploads simply by not arming the cameras, which sorta negates the entire reason for having a Blink system.
BTW:
The newest generation Blink system hub devices apparently no longer provide users a way to install memory chips or USB dongles to automatically store daily video data sent from the Blink ‘cloud’ server.
(Hah! Saves both bandwidth and internet data usage on my end…)
I’m still glad I have one of the older Blink hubs!
Got nearly two years worth stored now, and still room for another couple of months.
Hmmnnnn …
In light of recent events…
I am concerned that local and federal agencies might one day have an ability to gain legal access (administrative warrants?) to indtantly capture or monitor personal Blink camera data as it is being AI processed by Blink Servicrs (Amazon).
This access might in turn allow these agencies’ own AI processors to inform them, again at near real time, when folks leave and enter their homes and perhaps even monitor recorded audio data that might be used to reveal what is going on inside a home.
I believe Ring cameras have a similar vulnerability.
Now I am wondering:
What needs to be done to prevent something like this from happening?
Seems a lot like phone ‘wiretapping’, which requires a court order, I think.
Perhaps similar laws to those concerned with ‘wiretapping’ should soon be legislated to better protect people's personal digital data.
Any suggestions?
Stay Well…
Greetings ….
Have had Blink system for some while.
Now have 7 outdoor 4 cameras.
Really neat!
Up until about 7 or 8 months ago my ‘armed’ Blink cameras would sense motion and automatically trigger a recording.
My Blink subscription allowed my system to upload this video data to Blink to be stored in ‘the cloud’.
Once every 24 hours, a day’s worth of accumulated cloud video downloads from Blink into a memory stick that I plugged into my Blink hub device.
Ended up with lots and lots and lots of recordings of wind blown tree branches/ shadows plus a plethora of nighttime swarms of gnats and creepy (but fun to watch) spiders.
Well then…
The Blink folks (Amazon) must have decided that their cloud services were being overloaded with junk video from hundreds of thousands of cameras.
They began processing motion sensed video data transmitted to their services, apparently using AI to determine if the video showed persons, vehicles and ‘other’ (mostly animals like pets, horses, lions, tigers and bears (oh my!) and send just those to ‘cloud’ storage, ignoring everything else (swaying tree branches, bugs, shadows, etc,)
I’m cool with that…
And then, a few months ago, Blink went one step further with their new ‘Smart’ utility and gave me three choices, of which at least one had to be activated or my cameras would not function.
Choice 1 is to detect and record just persons.
Choice 2 is to detect and record just vehicles.
Choice 3 is ‘other’, which appear to be critters.
Seems that not choosing any of the three options would have resulted in their AI not saving anything at all to the cloud, which would essentially render the system useless.
So… Instructions say I gotta check off at least one.
Hey, Ya know...
Must be handy for those with lots of pedestrians, nearby road traffic or have cats, dogs and horses wandering sbout.
Hokay… I’ll go with that too.
(All three… of course!)
Now then, I had a disturbing thought..:
Might we assume that Blink Services AI intercepts all 7 of my ‘motion activated’ outdoor 4 camera video data sent to their server and sifts through them ‘on the fly’ to determine which are destined to be ‘cloud saved’?
Hmmnnn…
I guess I can go with that too.
Then the other day I got a notice saying:
‘There is a person bending over at the wooden deck.’
(Wooden deck? Hmmmnnnn.)
Of course, an Amazon delivery guy!
(Hey, is your boss watching?)
And then….
‘A white pickup truck is coming down the driveway’.
(That was me.)
And by next year????
‘Eloise is coming up the wooden stairs.’
Remote AI getting smarter still …
Yikes!
I am, of course, allowed an option to not provide Blink Services any ‘personal’ video data uploads simply by not arming the cameras, which sorta negates the entire reason for having a Blink system.
BTW:
The newest generation Blink system hub devices apparently no longer provide users a way to install memory chips or USB dongles to automatically store daily video data sent from the Blink ‘cloud’ server.
(Hah! Saves both bandwidth and internet data usage on my end…)
I’m still glad I have one of the older Blink hubs!
Got nearly two years worth stored now, and still room for another couple of months.
Hmmnnnn …
In light of recent events…
I am concerned that local and federal agencies might one day have an ability to gain legal access (administrative warrants?) to indtantly capture or monitor personal Blink camera data as it is being AI processed by Blink Servicrs (Amazon).
This access might in turn allow these agencies’ own AI processors to inform them, again at near real time, when folks leave and enter their homes and perhaps even monitor recorded audio data that might be used to reveal what is going on inside a home.
I believe Ring cameras have a similar vulnerability.
Now I am wondering:
What needs to be done to prevent something like this from happening?
Seems a lot like phone ‘wiretapping’, which requires a court order, I think.
Perhaps similar laws to those concerned with ‘wiretapping’ should soon be legislated to better protect people's personal digital data.
Any suggestions?
Stay Well…
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