Stephen Hacket relays a Google/Nest email to customers:

In response to community issues caused by COVID-19, we’re temporarily adjusting your camera quality and bandwidth in an effort to conserve internet resources.

The fact that Google has the technical capability to do this is why I don’t own any smart home devices. That they would choose to do it tells you everything you need to know about their ethics and morals.

Google retains access to and control of the physical devices they have sold. Imagine if I bought a car and a couple years later Honda sent me an email informing me that 5th and 6th gear would no longer work. Lawyers would be knocking on my door begging to help me sue Honda into oblivion.

Google isn’t the only unscrupulous camera manufacturer. Amazon testified to congress that they sell footage from Ring cameras to law enforcement, and their camera owning customers can’t do anything about it.

I will never purchase one of these so-called smart cameras, because it’s very clear that it wouldn’t really be mine.