My new place has a ring doorbell camera and, for now, I can’t get rid of it. What are my options for keeping it operable but not streaming to big brother 24/7? The easier the better.
I’ve heard you can flash and self host some models but I’d be happy with something as crude as a remote privacy flap that I can cover/uncover independently.
Edit: Removing/modifying it isn’t an issue, but my household wants to use it since it’s there.
I’m not personally opposed to a camera but would need to be in full control of the feed. My main goal is keeping it simple and cheap for now, so not replacing a functional camera is very tempting. Later on I can look into real alternatives but an afternoon project will do for now.
I moved into a place with a Ring doorbell.
I bought myself a Reolink doorbell and swapped them out. Reolink doorbells can be configured to be local storage only with no callhome, and they support RTSP. You can essentially configure them to precisely the privacy model you use — I even have mine set up to black out the parts of the screen that show my neighbors’ property, so it’s not available in recordings or the streaming video.
All the benefits of a Ring without the privacy invasion.