
Ask HN: Why isn't Tesla's Sentry system raising more privacy concerns? - aloukissas
I just learned about Tesla&#x27;s new Sentry system (in brief, it auto-records video when someone is approaching the vehicle, as a theft deterrent). I understand that the US is way more lax about issues of privacy (e.g. CCTV systems) compared, say, with the EU and UK. But this is a pretty big deal. Not dissimilar with Ring cameras, but at least (in the common case) for Ring cameras one may need to be actually within someone&#x27;s private property to be in the recording. Here, our faces are recorded if e.g. you are parked next to a Tesla and getting to our own car.<p>What happens to those recordings? Are they time-limited? Are people&#x27;s faces blurred out (doesn&#x27;t look like it)? Many questions here.<p>Thoughts?
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Someone1234
There's no reasonable expectation of privacy in public[0]. That's the law. In
both the UK, US, and other countries. Otherwise normal tourist style
photography would be unlawful. The face-blur thing is highly limited to using
someone's likeness for commercial endorsements. A Tesla vehicle parked in
public is therefore outside the scope of any privacy considerations because
you have none on that context.

None of this is Tesla specific. Every photo or video recording taken in public
has exactly the same liberties.

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expectation_of_privacy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expectation_of_privacy)

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gibolt
You have to be in very close physical proximity for a recording to occur. Most
recordings that close will be benign. It is worth considering the privacy
implications, but it isn't equivalent to a fixed security camera recording and
storing everything that happens in a broad area.

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aloukissas
From what I see on YT, "very close" is parked right next to a Tesla in a lot.
But yeah, many home cameras record everyone passing by on the sidewalk. Sadly,
the US has next to zero privacy protections.

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jfoster
Unless you damage the car, the owner is probably going to be fairly
uninterested in the footage, and it will probably get overwritten.

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aurizon
If that person is close enough to the car for it to detect and record, it is
much like someone entering your 'personal space' at which you tend to be
alert. Now people walking down the street - in the same direction do not
invoke avoidance, but people travelling the other way - when you may walk into
them are detected and avoided. Same with moving cars - in the same lane, going
the same way = safer than coming at you in any close land - you will watch and
avoid, so does the Tesla car

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aloukissas
Some of these worries would go away if Tesla did two easy things: (a) delete
recordings in a few minutes if nothing bad was detected and (b) ensure these
recordings aren't uploaded to the internet (similar to SD-backed dash cams).

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umeshunni
Both of those things work against the use-case of these cameras, which is to
prevent crimes against the car and its owner. > Delete recordings in a few
minutes if nothing bad was detected

The car doesn't detect if 'something bad' happens. If someone keys the car or
spray paints it, it might be hours before the driver comes back and notices
it.

> ensure these recordings aren't uploaded to the internet (similar to SD-
> backed dash cams)

The recordings are recorded to an SD drive (USB drive, actually -
[https://www.tesla.com/blog/sentry-mode-guarding-your-
tesla](https://www.tesla.com/blog/sentry-mode-guarding-your-tesla))

~~~
aloukissas
Oh- I missed that detail. I misunderstood that they were uploaded to the cloud
for the owner to see remotely (e.g. what Ring does). Still, I'm not
comfortable with this.

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ezekg
What about dash cams? This is pretty much the same thing, no? There's nothing
illegal about recording in public.

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Nextgrid
The recordings are stored locally on a USB drive in the car; there is no
cloud-based “panopticon” like with Ring. I personally don’t have a problem
with people having the recordings (both with cars and standard CCTV); it’s
only a problem when a single entity like Ring has full access to all the
recordings across the entire world.

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rcMgD2BwE72F
Why would _recording_ a public scene be a problem?

Should we rather restrict the _use_ of said recording, e.g to prevent its
publishing?

