Google has succeeded in annoying Nest camera, Nest Hello, and Dropcam owners by deciding to disable the ability to turn off the status light on these home security devices.

As 9To5Google reports, until now it's been possible to turn the status light off in the settings of these security devices. It's a great feature as it makes them less noticeable, especially at night. However, Google made a "commitment to privacy" back in May and that has resulted in the decision to ensure there's always a status light visible when these devices are recording.

On the one hand, it's good to know when you're being recorded. On the other hand, would you really want the person breaking into your home to be made aware there's a device recording them? It's likely they'll just grab the device, making it harder to later identify them. Nest camera owners are not happy, as is reflected in posts on the Google Nest Community page.

Rather than disabling the status light, Google will now only allow it to be dimmed, but that's only possible on Nest cameras ($129.99 at Google Store) and the Nest Hello ($229.00 at Google Store) devices. Dropcams can't be dimmed, meaning they can't fail to be seen when recording at night.

I suspect as well as reacting angrily to the change on forums, Nest and Dropcam device owners will be purchasing a lot of Duct Tape this weekend and cutting tiny pieces of it to place over the status light on their device.

Further Reading

Home Security Camera Reviews