Ring introduces better default encryption standards to address privacy concerns

Ring is addressing some of its privacy issues by overhauling how it handles encryption by default. The Amazon-owned company just introduced something called TAKE, which stands for Throw Away the Key Encryption that it claims will improve privacy while still enabling smart home features.

The newly-introduced platform protects Ring videos with "unique, rotating encryption keys." A copy of these keys is sent to "a secure enclave within the cloud." The company only uses these keys to activate whatever active smart home features a user has enabled and, after that, they are deleted from the cloud.

Ring customers will still have access to the footage via enrolled devices, and these videos can be shared with trusted users. The important bit here is that Ring, the company, doesn't have prolonged access to these videos. The company uses a house key analogy here, writing that the person who "made your lock doesn't keep a copy of the key."

TAKE will start rolling out in September, though it might take a bit to reach every Ring user. In the meantime, the company already lets people access full end-to-end encryption, which cuts out the company entirely. Of course, this could also limit many smart home features.

This is fairly good news for Ring users, though the company has an absolute dumpster-fire reputation when it comes to privacy. For years, police could request security camera footage from Ring and not even have to disclose anything publicly. This could even happen without permission from the person who bought the camera. It finally ended this request-for-access feature for law enforcement in 2024.

However, Ring did partner up with everyone's favorite surveillance company Flock after that to do something similar. That integration would've let users share camera footage with police upon request. The program never reached the public and was officially cancelled, as Ring said it required "significantly more time and resources" than expected. However, this was seen as a likely response to public backlash.

Finally, there's that whole Super Bowl ad thing. Ring inexplicably paid big bucks for a commercial that advertised a feature called Search Party. This AI-powered tool was marketed as a way to find missing pets by connecting Ring cameras together in a surveillance network. Detractors noted that this tech could easily be used to track people, in addition to dogs. Luckily, it's fairly easy to disable.

It's good that Ring is addressing some of these privacy concerns. It's worth noting, however, that the company doesn't seem to have changed too much in its surveillance-minded philosophy. The Flock and Search Party stories are from this year and its Familiar Faces feature is still active, despite an ongoing lawsuit. Familiar Faces uses facial recognition tech to identify visitors to a home.

The potential combination of the Search Party feature, which connects Ring cameras, and the Familiar Faces tool, which identifies people, has many privacy-minded folks worried. These worries were not assuaged when Ring CEO Jamie Siminoff recently said he could "now see a future where we are able to zero out crime in neighborhoods."