Ring

Is Ring safe?

Ring is safe enough for most homes once you set it up carefully, but it is not the most private camera you can buy. Accounts are much harder to break into than before 2020, when hijacked cameras were used to shout racist abuse at children. The weaker part is everything around the camera: a 2023 FTC settlement over staff watching customers' videos, and a renewed programme that lets police ask you for footage. We score Ring 57/100, above Life360 at 46 and close to its parent's shopping app, Amazon, at 53.

What did the FTC find about Ring?

In May 2023 Ring agreed to pay $5.8 million, to be used for customer refunds, to settle FTC charges. The FTC said Ring gave every employee and contractor full access to customers' private videos, whether or not their job needed it. One employee watched thousands of recordings of female users, including cameras in bathrooms and bedrooms, over several months before a colleague noticed. Ring could not tell how many others had done the same, the FTC said, because it did not monitor access.

The FTC also said Ring was slow to stop hackers. After credential-stuffing attacks in 2017 and 2018, in which criminals tried passwords leaked from other sites, Ring did not add multi-factor login until 2019. Hackers reached the videos, live streams or profiles of about 55,000 US customers and used two-way talk to harass people, including children and older people, and in one case to demand a ransom.

The order made Ring delete data, models and algorithms built from videos it had reviewed unlawfully, and customer videos and face data collected before 2018. Ring said the complaint described problems it had fixed before the inquiry, and that it disagreed with the allegations and denied breaking the law.

Has Ring fixed its security?

Mostly. Since 2020 every account needs two-step verificationTwo-factor authenticationSigning in with a second proof of identity on top of your password, such as a code from an app, a security key or a passkey.More in the glossary, and since 2021 you can use an authenticator app instead of text messages. Ring also says it checks for logins with passwords exposed in other breaches and locks accounts when it spots unauthorised access.

The bigger step is video end-to-end encryptionEnd-to-end encryptionEncryption in which only the sender and the recipient can read a message. The company running the service cannot see its content.More in the glossary. When you turn it on, recordings are encrypted with keys only your enrolled phones hold, and Ring says it cannot see them. It is off by default, though, and several older doorbells and cameras do not support it. It also switches off many of the features Ring sells, including Familiar Faces, Video Descriptions, Alexa and Fire TV viewing, playback on ring.com and third-party integrations. Lose your 12-word recovery phraseSeed phraseA list of 12 to 24 words that can restore a crypto wallet and all its funds. Anyone who has it controls the wallet.More in the glossary and your cloud backup, and the videos cannot be recovered.

Does Ring share videos with police?

This has changed twice. Through 2023, police could post Requests for Assistance in Ring's Neighbors app asking owners for video. Ring ended that tool in January 2024. Police could still get footage with a warrant, or without your consent in an emergency. Amazon told US lawmakers in July 2022 that Ring had done so at least 11 times that year, and Ring's transparency reports counted 3,147 legal demands in 2021.

In 2025 Ring changed course. Ring founder Jamie Siminoff announced a partnership with the police technology company Axon in April, and Community Requests began rolling out in the US that September. A local agency must give a location, a time window, a case number and a description of the incident. Owners nearby get a notification and can share clips or ignore it, and the agency does not see who ignored it. If you do share, the agency also receives your home address and email, CNN reported.

A planned extension to agencies using Flock Safety, a licence-plate camera company, was announced in October 2025 and cancelled in February 2026 after weeks of public backlash; Ring said the integration would have taken more time and resources than expected. It said no videos were ever sent to Flock and that federal agencies, including ICE, cannot use Community Requests.

AI features: Search Party and Familiar Faces

Search Party scans outdoor camera footage for a lost dog when a neighbour reports one. It was on by default for supported cameras, according to PCWorld, which helped fuel the reaction to Ring's February 2026 Super Bowl advert. Familiar Faces, a face recognition feature launched in the US in December 2025, is opt-in, needs a Premium subscription and an eligible camera, and Ring says it may not be available in some places because of local laws. If you use it, check whether your area requires visitors' consent.

How to set up Ring for privacy

1. In Control Center, turn on video end-to-end encryptionEnd-to-end encryptionEncryption in which only the sender and the recipient can read a message. The company running the service cannot see its content.More in the glossary if you can live without the AI features, and store the recovery phraseSeed phraseA list of 12 to 24 words that can restore a crypto wallet and all its funds. Anyone who has it controls the wallet.More in the glossary in a password manager.
2. Use an authenticator app for two-step login and a password you use nowhere else.
3. Turn off Community Request notifications if you never want police requests, and switch off Search Party.
4. Shorten video storage to the minimum you need, and review shared users and authorised devices every few months.
5. Do not point indoor cameras at bedrooms or bathrooms, and use privacy zones to keep neighbours' windows and gardens out of view.

How we scored it

User control (64) is Ring's strongest factor, thanks to Control Center and the encryption option. Privacy (52) and the regulatory record (52) are its weakest: the FTC findings, police access to footage and default-on features weigh more than the clean App Store label. Security (58) credits mandatory two-step login but reflects past failures and encryption that is off by default.