Ring adds End-to-End Encryption to wireless doorbells and allows device transfers

Ring added End-to-End Encryption (E2EE) to its hard-wired and plug-in doorbells with video recording capabilities last year. The feature has now been extended to the Amazon-owned company’s battery-powered or fully-wireless doorbells as well.

Confirming the much-needed privacy option, a blog post on ring’s official website said:

Today, we’re excited to announce that we’ve expanded support for video End-to-End Encryption to battery-powered devices. This brings an advanced encryption option to some of our most popular and affordable products, worldwide. We believe we should offer a full range of privacy options to as many customers as possible.

All the videos uploaded to the servers that Ring manages, are automatically encrypted. However, this means that, until today, the company could access the content. Moving forward, the ability to switch on E2EE should ensure that only the device owners can access and view their videos. This is because the necessary decryption key will be stored on a device attached to the account. Simply put, the ability to unlock data will be in the vicinity of the owner of Ring devices.

Ring has offered a guide that explains how to activate and set up video E2EE. The feature works via any iPhone with iOS 12 and above, or an Android device with Android 9 and above. The feature needs Ring iOS app version 5.34.0 and higher, and Android app version 3.34.0 and higher.

Apart from adding E2EE to the battery-powered video doorbells, Ring recently activated the ability to transfer an old device to someone else.

Ring subscribers can now place any device into the new Deactivated Device State. This lets you continue to securely access your saved events and videos on your Ring account even after ownership is transferred to a different user.

Deactivated Device State is helpful while customers consider removing a Ring device from their Ring account through the new Remove Device Flow. This is an intermediate step that allows customers with an active subscription to retain or delete recordings, which the company calls “memories”.