Ring’s battery-powered video doorbells and security cameras are finally getting end-to-end encryption (E2EE) support, more than a year after E2EE made its way to Ring’s wired cameras and doorbells.
Support for E2EE on wired Ring cameras means that only the person who owns the ring camera and has their iOS or Android device enrolled will be able to access the footage. This should ensure that wired Ring camera footage is more secure and that hackers can’t access your stream if they have your password. E2EE also ensures that Ring or Amazon can not access your recorded footage, and if law enforcement comes knocking at the companies’ doors, they won’t be able to hand over the footage.
If you own a battery-powered Ring doorbell or camera, you can head to the Ring app on iOS or Android, and navigate to ‘video encryption’ in the control center to enable it. Ring has a guide on how to set up E2EE on its website.
It’s worth noting that E2EE is now supported on all of Ring’s security cameras and doorbells, except the Ring Video Doorbell Wired. Also worth noting is that with E2EE, you’ll be trading off some of Ring app’s features. For example, you will not be able to preview videos on the Event Timeline view in the app, and in rich notifications. Motion detection, Bird’s eye view, Alexa Greetings and Quick Replies would all cease to function with E2EE on, though disabling the E2EE would bring all the lost features back.
In addition to E2EE, Ring is also making it easier for users to save their recorded videos in instances where they decide to upgrade or sell their Ring security camera. “You no longer have to manually download all videos associated with your old device to avoid losing them,” wrote Ring in its blog post. Subscribers can now add any of their devices to a new “Deactivated Device Slate,” which allows you to securely access your saved events and videos on your Ring account even after you’ve disposed of the camera, or its ownership has been transferred to a different user.
Furthermore, when you decide to remove a ring camera from the Ring app, a new “Remove Device Flow,” option will appear and will give you an option to “Keep or Delete events/videos from the device.”
Image credit: Ring
