I don’t want to sound like a “aluminum foil hat” guy but I’m concerned about CCTV cameras (private and public) around our towns.
All of these cameras do not send the stream to private servers (as the closed circuit would imply) but it’s sent to the manufacturers’ servers, usually in countries unfriendly to privacy regulations, let alone to human rights. I don’t think I’m in immediate danger, but I personally think they likely flow into some AI models and into some government-controlled hands in order to do whatever they want with it.
Another risk is the fact they’re very insecure.
I don’t know how to battle this. I try not to look directly into a camera when I see one, but that’s it. I wish more people would be aware of such risks.
Is it ok to be cautious? Yes! But mostly when you want to setup your own system and record or monitor your own premises. In which case you can select systems or cameras that have features and functionality, as well as connectivity, in ways you decide.
You want to use the ring app to be notified someone is at your door? You’re gonna have to give their system access to the video. But, you can also setup your own system without ring, and use self hosted tools to do essentially the same thing.
As for being cautious that cameras on the street are tracking you? Hard to really do anything about that (even though the effort required would be prohibitively immense to track an individual through all the various systems).