Just touch added end-to-end encryptionn (E2EE) for a select number of your smarthome cameras, protecting videos recorded by your Ring devices with an extra layer of security. That still doesn’t make us enthusiastic about Ring devices, exactly, given everything the questions The platform have with experience, but it’s a feature it’s worth knowing if you’ve already using a Ring the bell or camera.
Ring’s videos are encrypted as they are uploaded to Ring’s cloud servers, but this new feature protects them with an additional 128-bit AES encryption layer that can only be decrypted and watched on a mobile device enrolled in Ring’s E2EE program. (You can read more about Ring’s E2EE policy at a recently published article about the resource.)
E2EE can prevent strangers from intercepting and watching videos while they are being recorded or sent to your devices; not even Ring will be able to decipher them. However, Ring’s E2EE also disables a handful of features on the user side, including motion verification and the ability to watch live broadcasts from the Ring camera on an Amazon Echo Show or Fire TV device. Your recorded videos will be more secure, but you will lose real-time viewing and cloud-based monitoring capabilities that can be as important as the extra E2EE encryption layer adds.
If you’re okay with the tradeoffs, plugging in the Ring’s new E2EE is easy – as long as you have the right hardware. E2EE is only available on select devices at launch:
- Video Doorbell Pro
- Video Doorbell Elite
- Floodlight Cam
- Internal camera
- Wired Spotlight Cam
- Spotlight Cam Mount
- Stick Up Cam Plug In
- Stick Up Cam Elite
Additional support may be added in the future, but for now, you will need one of these devices to use E2EE. You will also need the latest version of the Ring application at any Android or iOS device you want to subscribe. If you meet these requirements, you can activate E2EE in the Ring application:
- Open the Ring app.
- Go to Control center> Video encryption> Advanced settings.
- Select “Video End-to-End Encryption.”
- Tap the slider to activate the feature and tap “Start.”
- Follow the instructions in the app to enroll your account, mobile devices and ring cameras for end-to-end encryption.
- You can disable E2EE at any time by turning off the “Video End-to-End Encyrption” slider.
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You will be asked to generate a password during setup – don’t lose it! It cannot be recovered and all encrypted videos you have will be lost. You will have to start over with another mobile device to use E2EE again.