Ring’s new encryption hopes to solve surveillance fears without killing any smart features

Ring just gave itself a privacy makeover by rolling out TAKE, short for Throw Away the Key Encryption. This new encryption option will become the default setting on every camera starting in September.

It’s Ring’s answer to a rough stretch of scrutiny, including backlash over a Super Bowl ad about a lost dog feature and its long, tangled relationship with law enforcement. TAKE promises to lock down your footage without gutting the smart features you actually bought the cameras for.

How TAKE keeps your videos locked down

Your videos get scrambled with rotating encryption keys that change every few minutes. A temporary copy lives inside a secure cloud enclave, and Ring can only unlock it briefly to power features you’ve turned on, like video search or smart alerts. After that, the key gets permanently deleted, and you’re the one left holding access.

Ring says TAKE is inspired by end-to-end encryption but it works differently. With true E2EE, Ring never touches your keys at all, while TAKE still gets brief access every time it processes your video.

If you have Shared Users on your account, they get a copy of the master key too. Newer cameras will let you switch between TAKE and E2EE, but older models will only support TAKE because they encrypt at the cloud level, not on the device.

What changes if police come asking for your footage?

Ring says it can now only hand over basic subscriber details and encrypted video files when law enforcement makes a legal request, not readable footage. Still, TAKE isn’t full E2EE, since Ring holds your keys for up to 24 hours and can request them again whenever you pull up older clips.

Without a Ring subscription, none of this applies, though a Ring security hub with a microSD card offers local storage instead. If you lose your device, Ring offers several recovery options, including cloud backup, a passphrase, a passkey, another authorized device, or camera-based recovery.

Those who want the strongest encryption, E2EE remains available, though it disables most cloud features. For everyone else, TAKE arrives free with any Ring subscription, quietly reshaping how much control you actually have over your own front door.