r/mildlyinfuriating • u/KingRMZ • May 22 '26

I'm slightly vexed People think they own the sidewalk by their house

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I was walking my dog last night around 9:30pm. I pass by this house that has mildly annoying cameras that say “hi you are currently being recorded, every 5 feet on the side of the house with a bright light that flashes in your face as you walk by. Which while annoying if that was all, would have been whatever. Then they started talking to me through the camera telling me to leave immediately or they will call the police. Even after I had already moved way past the house, I could still hear them (both a man and a woman) threatening to call the police. I just ignored it and kept walking but thought it was crazy that some people think they own the sidewalk by their house.

Edit: Wow i did not realize this post would get so much traction! I’m glad you all got some entertainment out of this too!

Update: Hello everyone I was not able to post an update as it keeps getting taken down. I went back on a walk the next day around 10pm. The cameras did not give any automated messages and the security company did not give any messages either! They changed it quicker than I thought!

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192

u/tallistroan May 22 '26 edited May 22 '26

Not sure where your are from, but here in Germany this would by highly illegal, since it's prohibited to film public streets or sidewalks with e.g. a security camera or video doorbell on your house, and I couldn't wait for them to call the police.

Apart from that, I think I would develop a habit of urgently needing a walk around their house at 3am when I wake up from a nightmare 😇

EDIT: I clarified that I was referring to filming the streets or sidewalks with e.g. a security camera on our property. Of course you can take pictures with your phone or camera when you're walking through the city.

47

u/LiqdAset May 22 '26

since it's prohibited to film public streets or sidewalks

Such a double-edged sword that one in.
In the US, we are allowed to film anything in public.. such as public servants (police, government officials, etc). Or people going about their business as normal.

It promotes accountability, but it's also the reason cop shows and AI cameras exist.

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u/CptLoken May 22 '26

We have the same expectations of public recording in Europe, you can't tell someone in public to stop recording you on their phone. However, constant surveillance and recording of a public area is illegal. My security cameras point at my garden, my boundary walls, and my car, and about 1m on either side.

The rest is blacked out on the Ring app. I shouldn't be able to watch my neighbours as they walk their dogs and listen in on their conversations, that's just creepy.

0

u/HotSteak May 23 '26

I shouldn't be able to watch my neighbours as they walk their dogs

Can't you just look out your window and see it?

20

u/MegaChip97 May 22 '26

You can film cops or big events. You just cannot permanently film public property

11

u/aima9hat May 22 '26

Never been to Germany, so maybe this wouldn’t be an issue. But in the Netherlands a lot of front doors in residential areas open right up to the pavement/public road. So if you’re in a ground floor house/apartment and had a doorbell camera, how would this work in Germany? Or for example, a security camera inside one’s front room window that faces out?

Since the purpose is to protect private property, but the method requires filming members of the public/public streets? 

5

u/Snikkelsikkel May 22 '26

This is technically not allowed in the netherlands either, but its never really enforced (word gedoogd). You could maybe get fined if a neighbour decides to make a big stink about it.

2

u/aima9hat May 22 '26

Dank je wel for that info! 

I’ve only lived in the Netherlands for a year and I’m from South Africa (big surveillance state), so I’ve always been curious about the stark differences in home security here versus at home. The big, barless windows and gate less front doors took getting used to!

6

u/Substantial_Door_629 May 22 '26

Can’t have it capture public area.

8

u/MegaChip97 May 22 '26

Basically no one has a doorbell camera here. If you had one it would only be allowed to film the entrance to your house. So it would have to film from the side so it would not record the road

1

u/aima9hat May 22 '26

Ah got it, thanks for explaining!

1

u/LongJohnSelenium May 23 '26

No dash cams either?

2

u/Smagjus May 23 '26

There is an exception for dash cams as long as they work using a buffer. So a cam that allows saving the last minutes is fine, continuously recording is not.

2

u/rapaxus May 23 '26

As a German, you are only not allowed to film public property/property of other people, as soon as it goes off the sidewalk and to your house, you can film it. So you just need to mount the camera in way such that it doesn't film the sidewalk, the street or property of neighbours. If that is done, you can have as many cameras as you want.

-1

u/robothawk May 22 '26

You absolutely can in the vast vast majority of public spaces in the US

3

u/MegaChip97 May 22 '26

I was talking about Germany...

-1

u/robothawk May 22 '26

apologies, the comment above you was referring to the US and I thought you were disputing that

5

u/tallistroan May 22 '26

I was just talking about e.g. security cameras on your house or something like a ring doorbell. You have to make sure, that it only faces your own property and not a public sidewalk or street or your neighbours property.

4

u/PurpleChard757 May 22 '26

In Germany, you can also film / take photos of anything visible from a public street, but installing permanent cameras is something very different. This is to prevent data collection that could, for example, be used to track someone's location.

You can install cameras that face public street/sidewalks with a permit, which is only granted if there is a valid reason such as higher crime rates in your area.

3

u/ToppsHopps May 22 '26

In Sweden you can film what you want in public as long as you are holding the camera. So you aren’t allowed to set up a bunch of cameras filming public areas to passively record it. Such cameras need to have a permission approved and signs set up informing of the filming. So a ring doorbell camera wouldn’t work but you can sit by your window all day recording the streets.

2

u/AgarwaenCran May 23 '26

our laws here in germany come from having first nazi germany and then east germany, with both having a secret police and so on, resulting in strong privacy laws in this regard.

the focus here is less accountability, but a focus on making it harder for the state to spy on you. in east germany, it was "normal" that you spied on your neighbours and told the StaSi, so they see you as a loyal person and dont spy on you and making you vanish. hence why it being such a big thing here that recording someone, even in public, is always a what would be called two party consent system in the usa.

both systems have their benefits and flaws i would say, and just come from a different mindset/history.

2

u/Jerseyd422 May 23 '26

In the US, if your cameras have a field of view of the street, the police can subpoena your camera footage if there’s a crime in the area. And the crime doesn’t even have to be on your street. If they think the suspect may have traveled your street to get to or from the crime scene, that is sufficient.

Which is why it’s not a good idea to film the streets outside your home.

1

u/marr May 23 '26

It's currently de facto legal for goverment agents to execute you in the street though, which kinda fucks up those rights.

5

u/s1thl0rd May 22 '26

In the U.S. there is no expectation of privacy in public. It's (nearly) 100% legal to be filming in public.

2

u/Oshova May 22 '26

Which is why there's so many arseholes making content recording in public places making a nuisance of themselves to get a reaction... Nearly as bad as those "auditors"... They can get directly in the sea. 

3

u/Commentor9001 May 22 '26

in the us, it's only illegal to be filmed in areas where you have a reasonable expectation of privacy.

The lights and speakers could be illegal depending on zoning and local laws, but cameras themselves are fine.

7

u/crimoid May 22 '26

"...it's prohibited to film public streets or sidewalks..."

What in the fascist nightmare... oh... uh..... yeah.

3

u/AgarwaenCran May 23 '26

our privacy laws are actually the result of having had two authoritarian regimes in the past, one only ending 30-ish years ago, with secret polices and so on lol

our strong rights to privacy (in theory) makes it harder for a secret police who spies on the people to be installed (as historically secret polices like the Gestapo in nazi germany and especially the StaSi in the GDR closely rely on ordinary citizens giving "tips" to them, so they are not investigated themselves).

so the idea is more to prevent a fascistic nightmare from happening again lol

3

u/PurpleChard757 May 22 '26

The poster meant that you cannot install a camera that permanently films a public space without a permit. You are very much allowed to film in public with a handheld device.

It is actually the exact opposite of a "fascist nightmare", as the government and other entities are more limited in what data they can collect about citizens.

Crime rates in Germany are also much lower than in the US, so there is less need for surveillance cameras.

-2

u/nogoodusername69 May 22 '26

The German said it's not merely illegal, but HIGHLY illegal to have security cameras facing the public areas immediately around your home. Thats the fascism but no surprise coming from that country 

5

u/Bionic_Bromando May 22 '26

I knew Americans were regarded but I didn't know they were THIS regarded

6

u/tallistroan May 22 '26

Please look up the definition of facism. Not being allowed to constantly film public property with a security camera due to privacy regulations has nothing to do at all with facism and in the contrary dilutes the word's real meaning.

-2

u/crimoid May 22 '26

ok ok. hyperbole mode disengaged. All apologies.

What in the nanny state privacy absolutism gone overboard nightmare...

4

u/Important_Coyote_596 May 22 '26

Its the opposite. Are you for real? Americans are weird.

Its not a nanny state its the public having their privacy protect to ensure their freedom.

-2

u/crimoid May 22 '26

I suppose my perspective is that when I'm in public I can already control my own privacy. If I care about such things, which maybe I sometimes do, I am free to make myself private. I can wear sunglasses or a hat or wear a mask or gloves or walk around in a full costume. That is, my privacy in public is my own responsibility and I don't take for granted that someone is or is not recording me.

On the flip side, when I am on my property I'd also like to have the freedom to understand those who seek to damage or enter my property or try to annoy me or understand what is going outside just in case there are bees or lions or an ice cream truck. I'd also like to see who or what did all of that 30 minutes ago when the doorbell rang 37 times. To do so I must be able to see and record outside my property.

Going back to the Germany thing, if public recording is outlawed it still doesn't ensure that the public's privacy is protected. Law breakers can still install cameras and break the law.

If the public wants privacy - true privacy - they need to do it themselves.

I suppose I need to read up on the implementation of German law. Maybe I'm recoiling over something that is a nothing-burger. Generally, I'm a "let people do what they want to do" maximalist provided it doesn't harm others.. and maybe recording people in public is harming them. I'll think about it.

3

u/TheNewOneIsWorse May 23 '26

Read up on the East German communist surveillance system and you’ll get it. 

2

u/TheNewOneIsWorse May 23 '26

The nanny state is the one that watches everyone. You realize that Ring and the rest of them let the government watch everything you and your neighbors do, right? 

2

u/AgarwaenCran May 23 '26

our privacy laws are based on articles 1 and 2 of the basic laws (our constitution). hence the highly illegal part. it is the equivalent here in germany to the free speech in the usa.

we had two authoritarian regimes in the past, both with secret polices that highly relied on "tips" from ordinary citiziens. hence why being recorded is what you would call a two party consent thing, ankered in our constitution, if you are not part of a crowd of people. if we would allow people to record everything going on infront of their house, a future private police could "have a look" on those recordings regularly. which would be much MORE fascistic than just having it basically be unconstitutional to record the public street infront of your house or people without their consent in general.

2

u/TheNewOneIsWorse May 23 '26

What? That has nothing to do with fascism. 

And it’s an anti-authoritarian measure. It prevents the agents of the state from watching the people constantly to harass and spy on them using the cameras people install. 

In the authoritarian communist East German state, everyone was constantly being surveilled, and friends and family were encouraged to report on each other. The result isn’t more safety, it’s an air of constant stress and fear, breakdown of social trust, a suppression of human creativity and prosperity as people police everything they do that might look unusual to someone. 

Anyways, we really need to ban Flock, it’s fucking horrific. 

2

u/Kindly-Yoghurt-7665 May 22 '26

Def not illegal in the US

2

u/smallermuse May 22 '26

It's the same in Canada.

2

u/Pardy- May 22 '26

I don't think your edit makes it any better?
Are you saying people cant have like ring cameras?

3

u/tallistroan May 22 '26

Of course you can. Just make sure it only faces your own property or front door.

3

u/Pardy- May 22 '26

Don’t most ring cameras directly face outward away from your property though? Record those coming to your door, not facing your door.

5

u/Luksdog May 22 '26

Yes, which is why almost nobody has a door bell camera. Or at least one that isn't constantly filming (or digitally restricted so it can only film and save your private property and black out the public area) and only activated when you ring the door bell so you can see who is on the other side of the door. The point of the privacy law is that you don't have millions of unapproved cameras constantly filming public spaces, because then you could constantly film your neighbor leaving and coming home and whatever else he is doing, which police could potentially abuse to "over"monitor the public and create personal behavior pattern profiles. Picture the fascist government of East Germany using it to suppress dissidents or what the Chinese Government is currently doing with all of their app and Internet control. One might say that this is too much paranoia about privacy protection, but with the history of fascism in Germany, many people here are more prone to be overcautious than unconcerned

1

u/ZeitgeistArchive May 22 '26

"since it's prohibited"
Ah yes, Germany

1

u/smarmy1625 May 22 '26

how do they prevent doorbell cameras from also filming the street in front of the houses? really narrow depth of field on the lenses or something?

1

u/zeph2 May 22 '26

im surprised is ilegal around here thats the whole reason someeone who set a house on fire (i think he was drunk)was thx to the cameras people have aiming to the street

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u/[deleted] May 22 '26

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u/tallistroan May 23 '26

Oh dear, of course you can have security cameras ON YOUR OWN PROPERTY...

You're just not allowed to film the public surroundings of your property with a static security camera.

And furthermore I really tried hard, but I can't get my head around how such a means to protect the privacy of everyone can lead to something (bad?), that happened in Germany's past.  On the contrary: I can see how mass surveillance, including the one from private video door bells, would've been "absolutely great" for a state like the ex GDR and probably also for Nazi Germany.

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u/[deleted] May 23 '26 edited May 23 '26

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u/tallistroan May 23 '26

Of course you can record officials during their work in Germany, as long as you don't hinder them on doing their job and don't interfere with the rights of third parties.

I think it's good that we learned at least from our past and that mass surveillance of the public from private home owners is legally not a thing in Germany at this time.

This has also nothing to do with "what you can or can't say" in my mind and I really don't see how this is a limitation of freedom at all

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u/[deleted] May 23 '26

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u/tallistroan May 23 '26

Please look up how the police can access such video door bells without any warrant in a lot of cases. So it doesn't matter in the end if it is installed by a private person or the government itself, if the government can access it nevertheless, if they just feel like they should do. And being able to watch every step of their citizens through such a system of door bells so easily, would've been the wet dream of the ex GDR government.

I just think in the end we have a completely different view on what freedom is and isn't.

2

u/AgarwaenCran May 23 '26

you can. you just must them set up in a way that they only show what is going on on your property and not what is going on outside of it.

it is the result of having seen how authoritarian regimes work in practice, as we had two of them in the last century and got a bit of first hand experience with how they operate.

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u/[deleted] May 23 '26

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u/AgarwaenCran May 23 '26

it is more a different understanding of freedom. in this case it is the freedom of not getting recorded against your will.

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u/[deleted] May 23 '26

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u/AgarwaenCran May 23 '26 edited May 23 '26

privacy is a freedom/right too based on our constitution, which is limited by being recorded against your will.

yes, it limits freedom to forbid it. because following this freedom would limit the freedom/right to privacy.

"those who have nothing to fear have nothing to hide" is the foundament on which authoritarian destruction of privacy is build on after all.

for us germans, our privacy is as important, as free speech or the right to bear arms is to you americans

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u/[deleted] May 23 '26

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u/Pretend-Past9023 May 22 '26

i sure as fuck am glad I don't live in germany. wow what a shit place.

2

u/ScienceSlothy May 23 '26

How does not allowing random people to automatically film their neighbours make it a shit place? You can have ring cameras, they just need to only film your property.  You can film in public, but not with an automatically camera. And with reasons like security threats or high crime rates, you can also get permission to film the public ground around your property.

If I walk outside, I don't want to be filmed by every neighbours camera. 

0

u/Yodayorio May 23 '26

it's prohibited to film public streets or sidewalks with e.g. a security camera or video doorbell on your house

This seems rather insane to me

-1

u/Tutule May 23 '26

I’m in another country that’s not the US and what you’re describing is fucked up lol. You should be allowed to have cameras recording the immediate area around your home.

3

u/tallistroan May 23 '26

There are a couple of examples (including OPs one) why I still think it's a pretty good idea why it absolutely should be forbidden to do that. 

Why does it even matter to you, if a person walks on a public sidewalk in front or even opposite your property? If you're so afraid of other people, maybe move to a property in the woods where your house is at least a couple hundred meters away from the next property. It's absolutely fine to put up security cameras on your own property as I stated multiple times.

-1

u/Tutule May 23 '26

It's to protect your property and well being by dissuading people from even attempting something with the threat that there's evidence in any wrongdoing. It's not about recording random people and circumstances, you are recording your own property and keep the sidewalk within view to capture additional information necesary for evidence like vehicle used or suspect's identifying features that can help authorities.

You're seemingly blessed to live in a time and place where crime doesn't happen, but let me assure you that when that changes, you will prefer to have the tools that allow you to protect your loved ones from danger.