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Comment by eigencoder | Hacker News Reader

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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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.

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

If you don't want them to store footage, don't buy a cloud connected camera

Yes. People need to stop treating corporations as if they will honor the spirit of an agreement instead of whatever interpretation gains them the most value.

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.

AI training data is valuable. They're not going to just throw it away.

What does the ToS that you agree to say about the matter? That’s the controlling document.

"In particular, we sometimes make legally-required updates, which are modifications that keep digital content, services, or goods in conformity with the law. We make these updates to our digital content, services, and goods for safety or security reasons, and to make sure they meet the quality standards that you expect, such as those described in the Legal guarantee section. We may automatically install updates that address significant safety or security risks. For other updates, you can choose whether you want them installed."

"We also collect the content you create, upload, or receive from others when using our services. This includes things like email you write and receive, photos and videos you save, docs and spreadsheets you create, and comments you make on YouTube videos."

It is easier to constantly upload video rather than check a boolean if current customer? An active customer status is not something that changes per second. Can easily be cached for multiple hours.

I think that even free users get recent videos saved, but I'm not positive. If videos are constantly being uploaded, why bother checking?

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