Security News > 2021 > January > Ring Adds End-to-End Encryption to Quell Security Uproar

After a much anticipated response to critics, Ring this week rolled out end-to-end encryption for many of its home security camera products.

Last October, Ring raised privacy hackles again when it unveiled the new Always Home Cam, a smart home security camera drone that flies around homes taking security footage of people inside their own homes.

Ring said the service gives users "Control and additional choices for encrypting and decrypting their videos and is designed so that no unauthorized third party can access user video content," according to a whitepaper Ring posted online about the service.

End-to-end encryption certainly adds a layer of privacy that many customers and privacy advocates have long wanted from Ring, which since its inception has constantly pushed the boundaries of how much privacy people are willing to give up for home security protection.

Following Zoom's Lead. The move to add end-to-end encryption to Ring is similar to one that online videoconferencing service Zoom took last year to encrypt video streams amid privacy concerns and numerous security breaches of the service, such as Zoom bombing and zero-day vulnerabilities, among others.

The encryption also may throw a wrench in controversial plans to use Ring's Neighbors app to share data footage from Ring devices with law enforcement, such as what's happening in a program being tested by police in Mississippi in which they can livestream video from Ring cameras installed at private homes and businesses.

News URL

https://threatpost.com/ring-adds-end-to-end-encryption-to-quell-security-uproar/163042/