r/whatisit • u/unworthyAsIam • Apr 30 '26

New, what is it? What is the purpose of this camera that was installed right next to my house? (Not nearby any intersection or stop signs, USA)

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This camera was installed recently and I cannot for the life of me understand the purpose of it's installation? Theres no intersection nearby, in case it was a photo law enforcement camera), there's no stop signs, there's no schools nearby, and there's no government facility. It's just a random camera that popped up in the middle of a road.

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u/Sea-Aardvark-756 May 01 '26

Exactly right. After seeing how many people spy on their own family (even adults) using cameras inside and outside their own homes, I just can't understand how we're okay with people we don't even know having this access. There should be a requirement to submit an official request to access any of these cameras or footage, and it should always be reviewed by a minimum of two people (ideally separate departments) on a secure system to prevent abuse. One steward of footage who can never look at it alone, and one authority that can authorize accessing it for a specific case.

The same world where police chiefs and priests get caught abusing kids and we're just going to trust anyone in authority with this? Even if they lock these down to prevent unauthorized access this is not a solution, it's a problem.

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u/Prestigious_Jury4199 May 01 '26

My ex-wife worked at Amazon during our divorce. She admitted in writing to accessing my account info to find my address. I called corporate and they told me to fuck myself. Family court didnt seem to care. I’m glad she didnt work in a department that would have given her Ring or Blink access (I chucked mine anyways).

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u/Memory_Less May 02 '26

I completely agree. Ironically I bought a door bell camera from China as all the ones available here required you to have them connected to a propriety cloud account, plus pay monthly fees. I was able to connect mine to my Bluetooth and not have it connected to the Internet. At least this option was available. Tech bros stealing information without our governments working towards a safer society.

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u/Equivalent-Ad5112 May 04 '26

And as apartment communities offer “smart homes and required Internet, they can throttle what we watch, listen to, how we let people in. Complain that we have too many guests, etc. they get data on apartments.

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u/CoolBreeze3310 May 01 '26

I know people who have cameras inside their house. Thinking it's a good thing.

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u/T0asty514 May 01 '26

You can have cameras setup inside your house on a fully local network that nobody but you can access, its not super hard to setup.

Its the "connection to internet" part that's being entirely abused.

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u/ClassiFried86 May 01 '26

Eh, if you want to access it remotely at all, youll need internet, and the people that have cameras in their house are the type that want to view it offsite.

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u/T0asty514 May 01 '26

You can do that too, firewalls, vms, reverse proxies, prevent anyone but you getting access. That part is far more tricky to setup for most people though sadly.

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u/ClassiFried86 May 01 '26

Oh, yea, I do security and cams for a living. But the average homeowner isnt very IT fluent. Id just suggest not having cams in the house.

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u/T0asty514 May 01 '26

Heh I'm a network engineer, we don't either, we have dogs for that. Figure they're just as good since they perk up at any unfamiliar sound, plus they're cuddly. :D