1970-01-01 4 hours ago

Why are we overthinking this? It was disconnected by the kidnapper, not erased by him. All the FBI has to do is reconnect it (or even just find the MAC address) and wait for Google to provide them the footage via a request.

https://policies.google.com/terms/information-requests?hl=en...

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eigencoder 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I heard that Nancy Guthrie was not paying for the subscription that let her view her old video footage. So it's interesting that Google was still storing all that footage.

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sandworm101 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

The google/ring backbone service people are likely disconnected from google's money collecting people. It is probably just easier to collect all of it and then check for payments only when users login to get at the footage. Otherwise, every fetch of footage from a camera would trigger a query to the payment system.

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chinathrow 2 hours ago | parent [-]

If I don't pay, they should not store footage. What is so difficult about that?

	▲	yndoendo an hour ago \| parent \| next [-]
		With Google, you are the product. Those that pay for their services just add more to their bank account. There is a reason they removed _Don't be Evil_. Decouple and move on from them is the only thing you can do.
	▲	patmorgan23 2 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		If you don't want them to store footage, don't buy a cloud connected camera

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draw_down 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

[dead]

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mrandish an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I don't have a Nest but I suspect it's even simpler than that. She didn't have a subscription but the devices still store video locally up to the capacity of onboard storage. These recent local clips used to all be locally accessible but to "increase subscription value", Google started making that locally stored data inaccessible without subscription.

However, the local storage is just a rolling buffer and the clips beyond the last 10 seconds are still there in local RAM and either not shown in the interface or deleted in the file system (but just by blanking the name in the directory, not a secure overwrite erase). Either the FBI forensic data recovery people or Google/Nest finally ran a sector-by-sector file recovery. I'm just surprised it took so long. I assume maybe because the local storage on those doorbells isn't a removable SD card so they had to gain access some other way.

Frankly, I'm surprised how many people buy devices which are cloud-only. At this point, I generally won't consider any IOT devices if the manufacturer even offers an optional cloud subscription (unless the firmware is open source). Too many companies have now locked down previously open devices to force cloud subscription (looking at you Chamberlain/LiftMaster assholes).

EDIT TO ADD: Saw this Verge article by someone who bothered to find out how current Nest doorbells work. It basically confirms what I thought with the nuance that some local files actually get uploaded to the cloud even without a subscription but aren't accessible until the user pays. https://www.theverge.com/tech/877235/nancy-guthrie-google-ne...

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krisbolton 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

The article even says "[...] some Nest devices record event histories and store them on-device. The third-gen wired Nest Doorbell can save up to 10 seconds of clips, while the first and second-gen wired doorbells can save up to three hours of event history, all without a subscription.".