Warning for all Ring doorbell owners – three settings you must check today

WHILE Ring doorbells help keep your home protected, they do come with risks, say experts.

Footage recorded by Ring can be distributed without your consent, and even hacked into if users aren’t careful.

Stop people watching your Ring footage without consent

The footage recorded through Ring cameras can be handed over to the police without your consent.

Amazon, which bought Ring in a deal reportedly worth more than $1billion (£830million) in 2018, keeps all footage on its servers for a maximum of 180 days before it is deleted – depending on your subscription.

And if it is requested by police, Amazon can then choose to give it away.

Paul Bischoff, consumer privacy advocate at comparison site Comparitech, told The Sun: “That gives police sweeping surveillance powers to peek through anyone’s Ring doorbell without investing a dime of their own into surveillance infrastructure.

“The potential for abuse of power and government overreach is high.” 

End-to-end encryption (E2EE) is an opt-in feature that adds extra layers of protection to video and audio recordings made by Ring devices.

To set it up, owners must make sure their Ring app is updated on the version 5.34 or higher.

Next, you go to Control Centre > Video Management > Advanced Settings > End-to-End Encryption and tap Got it on the disabled feature list.

Then hit Get Started and follow the in-app instructions to enrol your account in end-to-end encryption.

“Users can prevent law enforcement and other third parties from accessing their Ring video by enabling end-to-end encryption,” added Bischoff.

“E2EE ensures that only enrolled mobile devices can decrypt and view video. Not even Amazon can view your encrypted video. Note that E2EE is not an option for all Ring models, though.”

It is currently only available on devices which have software iOS 12 and Android 9 and onwards.

A Ring spokesperson said: “Police only have access to Ring customers’ video recordings if a customer has an optional Ring Protect Plan in place and chooses to download and share the recordings.

“Like any other company, Ring may receive law enforcement requests, such as search warrants, and we carefully review these requests.”

Make sure your Wifi connection is private and secure

If your Wifi connection is not private, the risk of your Ring doorbell being hacked is far higher.

Chris Hauk, consumer privacy advocate at cyber protection blog Pixel Privacy, told The Sun: “When setting up any camera like the Ring doorbell camera, make sure to use a secured connection to your WiFi network.

“If the doorbell is not connected to the network via a secure protocol, outsiders can tap into the Ring’s video feed, download video from your Ring storage, or use the Ring to tap into your network.”

You may even want to go a step further, and create a separate Wifi network for your Ring device.

If you can create a second secure Wifi network from your router, it could protect your other devices such as phones and laptops if you have a security breach through your smart home device.

It might also limit access to other information on your network. 

Protect your Ring doorbell from outside access

A feature known as two-factor authentication means that you need more than just a password to access your account.

It helps to limit the risk of a hacker trying to access your doorbell’s settings without your knowledge.

Two-factor authentication means a six-digit code will be sent to your smartphone for you to confirm inside the app, after you have entered the password.

“Never use the doorbell’s default password, always set it to a secure and unique password,” Hauk explained.

“Also make sure to enable two factor authentication on your doorbell login, this will help protect against someone accessing your doorbell’s settings.”

You can enable this through the Ring website, or in the Control Centre section of the Ring app.

The Ring spokesperson added: “We have taken strong steps to protect customers and help keep their information and accounts safe.

“We made two-step verification mandatory, alert customers each time a new device logs into their account, and regularly scan lists of compromised account credentials from non-Ring breaches.”

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