RING…and I don’t mean your telephone

A friend of mine has the RING doorbell/video system.It’s a pretty neat device.You can see who’s at your door before they even ring the bell.You can communicate with them if necessary and it adds a sense of security around the house.That’s all well and good.But, what about that video that the system takes and stores?Is it yours?Who controls it?Hint: it’s not you!

No, that video isn’t yours and that may be good, else you’d be paying for the storage.Just who owns it?AMAZON, that’s who, and they can do with it as they please.And what they please may set you back a bit.They have agreements with hundreds of law enforcement agencies across the country.And they can provide what you may have thought was your video to the cops without your knowledge or consent.

Admittedly, that’s not a major concern for most of us.After all we are law abiding citizens who live at the foot of the cross.Well, for now we are.But with the thought and gun police at every corner, could it be a concern later?What if an assault weapon or high capacity magazine ban comes into play?Let’s not pretend it’s not in the works.And what if you decide, on constitutional grounds, to not comply?And let’s say there is video of you entering or exiting your house carrying such items.Or, what if you host a weekly gathering of people who may be declared haters because of their political views and the government wants to know who attends each week?Are we seeing a problem yet?

As I weighed this with callers on the show there was no consensus.It’s less decided than global warming.There are plusses and minuses.It’s going to be up to the individual.One caller, the techie who has the system, isn’t all that worried.I suppose you can always turn the service off.Other callers said they were done with theirs or never buying a system if they didn’t have one.

If it comes down to trusting government and corporations who try and curry favor with government, my guess is these systems are on the way out.For now, I’ll buy new assault weapons and magazines while I still can before I consider a video system that is already telling on its owners!

CONGRATULATIONS Michael Krajic.YOU’VE WON THIS WEEK’S BML INSIDER MUG.

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