How do I undo my 'donate' video (clicked on button by accident) Arlo cameras

[ricksea34]

I have accidentally clicked on the 'donate' button to contribute videos for research, yet there is no obvious way to undo this.

[Daniel999]

I have reported this issue to privacy.violation@netgear.com since I think this functionality is in viloation with the privacy policy of Netgear. Actually, I think it's highly possible to go ahead and take other action regarding this issue as well since I'm questioning the legailty of this functionality, especially the way it's designed.

The donate-button is in too close proximíty to the delete button, making it easy to hit accidentally. The function doesn't give any additional information about the purpose of the donate action and there is no chance to confirm the wish to donate the video. Once the donate button is hit, the donation of the video is from the app perspective final. 

I accidently donated I video I very much NOT didn't want to donate. So, just tell me.. how do I undonate this video!? 

[cadenza]

Anyone who has donated/provided their photos to Netgear should be able to contact Netgear directly to have their photos removed, before the undo button/feature is implemented.

This is a serious matter about privacy. It is your personal information (in this case your private photos) and Netgear do not own it. Even you have previously given Netgear your consent for them to use and store your personal information, it does not mean you cannot cease the consent, and you absolutely have the right to ask them to remove the information at any time. This is a very basic privacy principle.

[hangglider]

Same issue. Unintentionally "donated" on Android mobile app, with no warning, confirmation prompt, or clarification of purpose. No way to retract. Worst of all, five months have gone by, and there is no patch or change in application behavior, nor a method offered to how to reverse the donation. This is unacceptable.

[coldcuppatea]

Just got an email notification on this as I replied to the thread many months ago. Interesting to see it's still an issue.

I corresponded with Netgear support on this subject and they were awful.

In the end I resolved the issue by selling all my Arlo cameras and buying Nest Outdoor cams. Far more reliable (they record all the time so no more missed events!) and they don't ask me to "donate" clips.

In these days of concerns over how our personal data is used, I'm amazed that Netgear haven't knocked this lousy idea on the head yet.

[DawnM]

Hello all,

We added a "confirmation" button quite some time back on Android. When I click Donate, I see another pop-up (see screenshot below) that you have to click confirm on before it gets sent to us. Are you guys not seeing this pop-up? If you are not seeing this pop-up, please PM @JamesC with the email address that is registered and he can follow up with our Android Engineering team to look into it.

[cadenza]

The problem is that the 'Donate', 'Download' and 'Delete' buttons are very close to each other, and all of these start with letter 'D'. The 'Delete' button also requires a confirmation. When a user tries to delete or download multiple videos, the user can mistaken the 'Delete' confirmation box with the 'Donate' confirmation box, or think the confirmation box for 'Donate' is for 'Download'.

I think as developers you need to allow the users to speak their experience. Clearly people are not happy about this donate feature. And this discussion has gone on for over a year now but the development team has not done anything is really disappointing all users.

[hangglider]

Thanks for your response, DawnM.  I am running version 2.4.6_18293 of the Arlo Android app, released 10/5/2017.  Based on what I've read, its likely that the "donate" confirmation feature / fix is not incorporated into that version.

Why have I not upgraded, you ask?  I've not updated the app, because the next available version requires permissions to my contacts.  For the life of me, I can think of no legitimate reason why the Arlo app needs that access, and given the Android version I'm running (unrooted 5.0.1), I can't selectively deny that permission.

Can you shed any light on the rationale for the additional permission?  If I can understand the reasoning, perhaps I'll move forward with the update and then everyone's happy.

Thanks again.