It depends exactly where you live but generally it’s to pay for things that your society has deemed to be better spent together. There is the obvious stuff like roads, schools, pensions, police, fire, health, prisons, court systems, bin collections etc. Then there is defence/war, immigration controls, overseas embassies, security services, postal services, plus regulations (health and safety, food standards, restaurants, barbers, doctors, dentists, construction, fire safety etc.) - somebody has to make the rules and check they’re being followed. Often local property taxes are collected for local needs (e.g. police and education).

As much as it feels painful, you do benefit from a lot of collective activity that needs to be paid for.

Fuck yes!

If you still haven’t said shit about the genocide. Know your grandkids one day are gonna ask you, “Why?”

79% of smart dash cams we tested had security issues Out of 28, only six didn’t have any concerns. Find out what problems we uncovered and how to keep your dash cam secure Callum Pears Researcher & writer

Callum pushes tech to its limits and has spent nearly three years bombarding antivirus with malware, taxing routers and inspecting computer monitors

Which? dash cam tests found security flaws and concerns in the majority of smart models we tested, and in some cases they were breaking the law.

Smart dash cams have wireless connectivity and features that use the internet. This could be tracking technologies, motion detection, voice assistant controls and voice alerts, as well as more advanced features such as automatic cloud backup, real-time alerts and remote viewing.

You’re also able to transfer footage wirelessly to the companion app on your smartphone, which is much quicker and more straightforward than traditional dash cams, where you’d need to remove the SD or micro-SD card and copy the files over to your computer.

Although these features make a dash cam a more useful tool for drivers, they also expose you to potential security risks.

Our testing found numerous dash cams with multiple security vulnerabilities. In fact, of the 28 smart dash cams we tested, only six lacked security concerns.

Find out what problems we encountered, which manufacturers took action to fix the problems we uncovered, and what you can do to keep your dash cam secure.

Best dash cams: compare dash cams from Garmin, Nextbase, Road Angel and more What were the issues we found? A person watching dash cam footage on their smartphone

Of all the issues we found, weak default wi-fi passwords were the most concerning security vulnerability because they mean that nearby hackers could connect to the devices and access data such as journey information, saved recordings and other personal information.

Since 2024, manufacturers have been obliged to ensure that default passwords aren’t easily guessable. This can be resolved by enforcing a mandatory password change or by assigning unique default passwords.

We contacted each manufacturer to share our findings and gave them an opportunity to comment and resolve our concerns.

Road Angel successfully addressed the issue with its dash cams, which now require changing the default password.

Miofive initially responded and released a firmware patch that fixed some of our other concerns, but didn’t resolve the default password issue. Miofive didn’t respond to our follow-up messages, and we received no response from Kitvison and Orskey.

In addition to weak passwords, we also found mediocre encryption on some dash cams. There were several exploitable security weaknesses that made it possible to intercept data, access, and potentially modify stored video files.

To do this would be difficult for hackers. In most cases, they would need to be very close to the dash cam to exploit it – but it’s not impossible. Many of these issues are also exacerbated by the poor default wi-fi passwords.

Nextbase resolved our concerns with firmware patches. Miofive and Road Angel fixed some issues but not others, and we’re continuing to work with Road Angel to get remaining concerns resolved.

Garmin reviewed our findings but stated that it believes that numerous factors 'limit the exploitability of any purported vulnerabilities such that there is no practical risk to our customers’. Kitvision and Orskey did not respond.

In an age of growing cyberattacks and sophistication among hackers, dash cam manufacturers should be placing the greatest emphasis on their devices’ security, even if they think it’s difficult to exploit or a niche weakness.
Why is PSTI important? Dash cam showing the road ahead

The Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure (PSTI) Act came into effect in April 2024. It mandates that manufacturers, importers and distributors (such as retailers) have a duty to protect devices that can connect to the internet or other networks.

It states ‘UK consumers should be able to trust that these products are designed and built with security in mind’.

The PSTI Act specifies the publication of information on how to report security issues, details on how long manufacturers will ensure security patches are released and the banning of universal default and easily guessable passwords.

These factors are important for strengthening security defences and ensuring that manufacturers release updates to keep products safe from new threats.

Although the Act gives manufacturers time to bring their products in line with its standards, they’re now duty bound to investigate compliance failures and take action if required.

If manufacturers fail to act, then the Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) will intervene. The OPSS is an enforcement authority responsible for ensuring compliance.

Strong legal protections and vigilant enforcement mean UK consumers can use smart devices – including dash cams – with confidence, knowing that non-compliance by manufacturers will have consequences.

Which? takes this seriously too, and we’ve already informed the OPSS about our findings, the responses we received from manufacturers and the concerns we still have.

3 steps to keep your dash cam safe and secure A person installing a dash cam in a car

There are some simple steps you can take to boost your dash cam’s security, regardless of what manufacturers do or don’t do.

1. Update wi-fi passwords

The most important thing we would encourage every smart dash cam owner to do right now is to update the wi-fi password.

This is used to connect to paired smartphones and transfer footage wirelessly to them. A weak or easily guessable password could, under the right circumstances, allow others access to your dash cam and its library of footage.

As our testing has found many manufacturers still fail to either enforce a mandatory change, or provide a unique default password – it’s highly recommended that users update them independently to a strong, but memorable, alternative. Check out our guide to creating secure passwords for help with this. 2. Install firmware updates

In addition to resolving software bugs and performance issues, firmware updates also provide important security updates.

It’s important to update both the dash cam itself and any companion app. These updates ensure both are equipped to deal with newly discovered or recently resolved security vulnerabilities. 3. Keep footage backed up elsewhere

It’s good practice to ensure that captured video footage – particularly important footage (such as that showing an incident, accident, or crash) – is backed up securely and separately from internal storage and any subscription-based cloud storage you may be using.

The risk to footage located exclusively on the internal SD or micro-SD card is that it could become corrupted, damaged, lost or stolen.

Cloud-based storage is typically part of a subscription service (either from the dash cam manufacturer or a third party). The risk here is ending the subscription and losing access to the stored footage, which the provider may later delete after you’ve unsubscribed.

Back up footage on your computer or smartphone to keep it safe. Alternatively, for additional peace of mind, consider investing in a USB storage device or external hard drive to store your backed-up dash cam footage. Make sure to pick a model with a healthy amount of storage, as video files tend to be large.

The latest dash cams we’ve tested BlackVue DR970X-2CH Plus BlackVue DR970X-2CH Plus dash cam BlackVue DR970X-2CH Plus Amazon Marketplace UK £529.95 Amazon UK £529.95

The DR970X-2CH Plus is a forward-facing and rear-facing dash cam with a 4K camera for the front windscreen and a Full HD camera for the back.

It has a range of smart features and functionality, and you can review footage using the companion BlackVue app or the BlackVue Viewer web software.

You can also follow footage on a virtual map using the collected GPS data, helping you identify where key events occurred.

Through the BlackVue Cloud service you can access more advanced features such as push notifications to your smartphone, live view and cloud storage. Some of these features require a subscription at an additional cost.

Read our BlackVue DR970X-2CH Plus review to find out how it fared in our tough tests. Garmin Dash Cam X210 Garmin Dash Cam X210

Available from Garmin (£260)

The X210’s 2K camera is an upgrade of the earlier X110. It’s comparatively small, making its footprint on the windscreen minimal, especially compared with some models.

Motion detection, GPS tracking and voice controls are all notable smart features.

The Vault Subscription Plan Advance grants you access to Garmin’s secure cloud-based storage feature. This is accessed through the Garmin Drive app.

Take a look at our Garmin Dash Cam X210 review to see how it compares to others we’ve tested. Nextbase Piqo 1K Nextbase Piqo 1K dash cam

Available from Halfords (£99), Nextbase (£99)

The Piqo 1K is one of the more affordable dash cams we’ve tested, but it doesn’t come with a supplied SD card, which can easily catch you out.

It has a solid array of additional smart features, including GPS tracking, motion detection and the ability to access footage via the companion Nextbase app.

Footage is listed with thumbnails in the app, making it a doddle to cycle through them.

Check out the Nextbase Piqo 1K review to see if it’s the right dash cam for you.

Good. SUVs are unnecessary anywhere in the M25 (and the whole of the UK but especially cities). Our roads, parking spaces and car parks haven’t magically got bigger. Our school children haven’t magically got twice as tall at each. Car drivers haven’t magically stopped killing people. You measure your living room to buy an appropriately sized sofa, get a fucking car size that makes sense.

How about

• reinventing trains but worse
• rocketing amount of space launches filling up junk
• we deliver everything but once we take over it’ll all be crap rip off products (for slave wages)
• we deliver any food by people who can’t drive (for slave wages)
• we’ll create algorithms to enforce society divisions and hurt mental health of children
• we’ll take over a popular platform and make it even more disgusting and fascist

Ooof, that’s bad!

I get the “why are you so western, what’s wrong with you, why do you want to do what your friends do instead of what I tell you”, erm, well you came over to this country and had kids, we were one of very few Indians or any other minority, where they chose to move to from a fairly diverse area they lived in before just before I was born - yes of course it’s my fault completely!

Same on an Indian forum. They’d all blame me. They blamed me for not learning their language. I didn’t refuse to learn it, they didn’t teach me properly and the lagoons I got were on reading and writing, not speaking and understand. I could read any books but had no idea what it meant and lost it. I was in a taxi and the guy asked where I was from. When he’s said he spoke to me in that language and I said I don’t understand. He asked me how that happened and I said my parents didn’t teach me. He literally said to me that it wasn’t their fault and that it I wanted to, I could learn quickly, blaming me effectively.

Luckily for me, it was mainly my dad. My mum was like that for some things but not as bad. Made it more bearable than lots of people I know.

Everything you said resonates unfortunately. The worst for me was my dad paid for my first year of rent at university. He kept bringing that up years later for any little thing.

I learned to just avoid doing things, do a bad job or forget to reduce what they ask for. I don’t ask or expect anything in return, which has it’s own problems though as I try to do too much myself and don’t trust/rely on others which harms me long term.

Great work! Also, degaussing gives me major throwbacks… I had absolutely no clue what it did but really enjoyed the look of the screen wobbling around and even the sound of the thunk. I think I liked to do it so often enough for shits and giggles, that I never saw what gaussing is

Removed by mod

Never tried it but heard so much talk about jellyfin I tried that and it seems to work pretty well so far. Is there any advantages of emby over jellyfin?

This is good to know, thanks for sharing. I’ve only got it local for now after installing at the weekend and wasn’t sure how secure it was for external access.

Same. I finally switched over to jellyfin recently as it was low down on a long list of stuff I want to do, let alone need to do. I feel like I got my worth and if things mess up with jellyfin, I’ve got a temporary backup option to spin up without having to give a single penny more. Fingers crossed, no more of my data either seeing as it’s all uninstalled.

Such a good point. Every once in a while I come across a particular social policy in a European country that someone from there is astonished doesn’t exist in other countries and on paper you think this would be great but you would know it would be such a hard sell in your / other countries. I think on a city / regional level there is a lot more about looking what other places are doing well top adopt them but don’t see it as much on an international level (outside of the EU anyway)

I don’t know how any company I’ve worked for would operate, especially when headquartered in another country. They’ll just have to fire everyone in that country rather than compromise their security

Others have explained it well. Just want to add a recommendation to use the trash guides (https://trash-guides.info/) to configure these apps. You can use Notifiarr to sync these changes automatically too

I use fairphone 5 with /e/os and echo these comments in the most part, although would go higher than OK to that it works well for me.

All my banking apps (UK based) work through aurora store, which might be luck. I have had difficulty with a few others I slightly miss (mainly Citymapper). I use Foss alternatives on f-droid as much as possible and for others I add a link to their website on my homepage, which mostly works the same but can have features missing (Citymapper has less options).

I did find google maps has better traffic than any other apps so sometimes I use GMaps WV from f-droid to check which route is best, then try to actually learn those routes or use another maps app for navigation.

I got a fairphone 5 earlier this year and am very happy with it. There is a version with /e/os installed but it was out of stock so I bought the android and it was really easy to install /e/os myself with no technical knowledge needed. I use f-droid for as many apps as possible. It has a version of play store (app lounge) for other apps, most of which have worked. For the odd one that didn’t, I’ve just added a shortcut to the mobile website for quick access. Theres no google pay but I can use the curve app fine with NFC so can even buy stuff, something I didn’t expect to be able to do.

I bought a set over a year ago for my son, then the school library also seems to have them (they pick a book a week)

We’re very aware in the UK but it’s not too easy. We have some the oldest housing stock in the world. We don’t have central air with no real way to retrofit so it would have to be one room at a time. Our windows aren’t designed to house those units I see in NY. We have to rely on very inefficient portable units so I only use it on the really hot days. Energy prices are still high after Russia’s invasion. People are adding proper units when extending but only the rich can really afford that.

This is why I happily pay for channel 4 plus, even though I don’t use their app for viewing all that much