Ring Enhances Security and Introduces New Features: Unique Encryption and AI-Powered Tools
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Under TAKE, Ring videos are protected with unique encryption keys that regularly rotate. A copy of those keys is temporarily held inside a “secure enclave within the cloud,” which Ring says it can only access under limited conditions to execute and process features like Video Search, Video Descriptions, and Smart Alerts.
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The VergeRing says TAKE uses unique, rotating encryption keys for your footage, stored in a secure enclave and accessible only under strict conditions — based on the features you enable on your account. Currently, footage captured by Ring cameras is encrypted in transit to the cloud and at rest, and then decrypted for Ring to process for those smart features. With TAKE, the encryption keys change for every five minutes of footage. Ring stores copies of those keys to decrypt the footage, but throws away each copy within 24 hours, “leaving you with the keys and full control of your videos,” according to Ring.
TechCrunch“With TAKE, Ring delivers the intelligent features you love and rely on, like Smart Alerts, and then throws away and deletes the encryption key. Only you retain the keys to your video,” the company said in a blog post.
CNETOne copy of the key is held in the cloud by Ring, in what Ring describes as a “secure enclave,” which requires specific permissions and situations to access. If you have any Ring artificial intelligence features enabled for your Ring device, like video descriptions and summaries, familiar face detection, advanced object recognition and so on, then Ring takes the key out of its vault and uses it — once — to analyze your video footage.
EngadgetThe 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.
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Earlier this year, Ring canceled a planned Flock integration into Ring’s Community Requests program. The initiative allows users to voluntarily share video footage when requested by police working on active investigations, with the footage being handled by a third party like Flock Safety.
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EngadgetHowever, 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.
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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.
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GizmodoRing stepped away from the partnership following backlash to a Super Bowl ad promoting its AI-powered “Search Party” feature, which uses Ring cameras to help find lost pets. Critics, including Sen. Ed Markey, voiced concerns that the tech could eventually be used to surveil and identify humans.
5 details only one outlet reported
Independent claims that didn't surface elsewhere in our corpus. Treat as supplementary — not corroborated across outlets.
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01 Gizmodo “Privacy and security are not a one-time announcement for us. They are part of how we build,” the company said in a press release. “We are constantly listening to what matters most to our customers and inventing accordingly to deliver the best products and experiences possible.”
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02 The Verge If you lose access to your device, Ring says there are several recovery methods, all of which are only accessible to the customer. These include cloud backup via your phone, a passphrase, passkey, another authorized device, and camera-based recovery. If all those fail, you won’t be able to access encrypted content.
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03 TechCrunch Amazon’s white paper detailing the standard notes that it was developed with a base of Messaging Layer Security (MLS), an open messaging standard developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force. The company said that with TAKE, if you lose access to your device and buy a new one, you can authenticate yourself by standing near the Ring cameras to recover your encryption keys. Separately, you can use a passphrase, cloud-based backups, another approved device, or passkeys to recover your account.
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04 Engadget 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.
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05 CNET Jamie Siminoff, founder and chief inventor at Ring, told CNET, “We wanted to provide E2EE-like security while allowing customers to continue using all the features they expect from their Ring devices.”
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Sources (5)
- verge
- cnet
- techcrunch
- gizmodo
- engadget