Ring addresses some of its privacy issues by overhauling how it handles encryption by default. The Amazon-owned company just launched something called TAKE, which stands for Throw Away the Key Encryption which it says will improve privacy while 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 in the cloud”. The company only uses these keys to activate active smart home features that a user has enabled, and after that, they are deleted from the cloud.
Ring customers will still have access to footage through enrolled devices, and these videos can be shared with trusted users. What’s important here is that Ring, the company, does not have extended access to these videos. The company uses a house key analogy here, writing that the person who “made your lock does not keep a copy of the key.”
TAKE will begin rolling out in September, although it may take a little time to reach all Ring users. Meanwhile, the company already allows users to access full end-to-end encryption, which eliminates the company altogether. Of course, this could also limit many smart home features.
This is pretty good news for Ring users, even though the company has an absolute reputation for privacy. For years, police could request security camera footage from Ring without even having to disclose anything publicly. This could even happen without the permission of the person who purchased the camera. This access request feature for law enforcement was ultimately removed in 2024.
However, Ring then teamed up with everyone’s favorite surveillance company, Flock, to do something similar. This integration would have allowed users to share camera footage with police upon request. The program never reached the public and was officially canceled, as Ring said it required “much more time and resources” than expected. However, this was seen as a likely response to public backlash.
Finally, there’s the whole Super Bowl commercial thing. Ring inexplicably paid a lot of money for an ad announcing a feature called Search Party. This AI-based tool was marketed as a way to find missing animals by connecting Ring cameras together in a surveillance network. Critics have pointed out that this technology could easily be used to track people, in addition to dogs. Fortunately, it’s quite 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 appear to have changed much in its surveillance-focused philosophy. Flock and Search Party’s stories are from this year and its Familiar Faces feature is still active, despite an ongoing lawsuit. Familiar Faces uses facial recognition technology 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-conscious people concerned. Those concerns weren’t assuaged when Ring CEO Jamie Siminoff recently said he could “now see a future where we can eliminate crime in neighborhoods.”
