Ring is making key-based encryption the default for every one of its customers, in place of a setting people had to go and find.
The version the company already offered switched off the security features Ring processes in the cloud, which is most of what a buyer pays for. The new one, its founder says, leaves those features and shared access in place.
"But they also want to share their videos with others. They want AI features."
Jamie Siminoff founded Ring, the video-enabled smart home and security brand Amazon owns, and he is the person the company put up to explain why Amazon's servers will no longer hold a permanent key to a customer's video.
I listened to the full interview so you can skip it.
Here are the 4 takeaways that matter.
👤 Guest: Jamie Siminoff, who founded Ring, the video-enabled smart home and security brand Amazon owns
🎙️ Host: Meghan McCarty Carino, who hosts Marketplace Tech, American Public Media's weekday technology show
📰 Published: 1 September 2026 on Marketplace Tech (American Public Media)
🟢 Spotify | 🟣 Apple Podcasts | 🔗 Episode page | ⏱️ 11 min
Key Takeaways
Ring is making key-based encryption the default rather than an option Siminoff said every single user gets it in the new rollout, where end-to-end encryption was a setting a customer had to go looking for
Turning on end-to-end encryption used to switch off the cloud features people buy the camera for Those features are processed on Ring's servers, which had to keep access to the video to run them
The new system is built around a home rather than a single device, so shared users survive it
Siminoff says Ring would have done this years ago and the hold-up was the invention it needed
1. No permanent server access
Meghan McCarty Carino opened the show with the announcement itself, and framed the story as Ring moving to make its video footage more private.
Ring is adding an encryption system called TAKE, short for Throw Away the Key encryption. The host said it lets users encrypt the video their home cameras capture while the advanced AI-enabled capabilities and security features stay active
The mechanism the host described came from Siminoff: TAKE works by changing, or throwing away, the encryption key, so Amazon's servers do not have permanent access to the video
2. What end-to-end shut off
Ring has offered end-to-end encryption for some time. Siminoff's account of why that was not the answer is about what it took away rather than what it protected.
The show's own framing was that the older option cost the customer the cloud features. "The company already offered traditional end-to-end encryption, but that disabled advanced security features processed on the cloud" — Meghan McCarty Carino
The two could not coexist because those features run on Ring's servers, and the servers had to keep access to the video to run them
What customers would not give up, on Siminoff's account, is the rest of the product. "But they also want to share their videos with others. They want AI features."
3. Encrypted for every user
Siminoff described TAKE as a variant of end-to-end encryption built around a home rather than a single device. "And so we were able to take end-to-end, build a variant of it called Take, which gives you a similar, like the encryption of a key-based encryption, but now around the environment of a home so you can still enjoy having things like shared users."
It is not something a customer switches on. "And this is on by default in the new rollout."
The arrangement goes from two tiers to one. "So before we had our sort of standard architecture of safety and security, and then you had end-to-end as an option if you really wanted to go sort of the extra mile, now you'll have that key-based encryption as a default to every single user."
4. Why it took this long
McCarty Carino asked why Ring has added this now.
Siminoff said the timing was not a change of mind. "I mean, we would have added it a long time ago."
The delay he gave is the engineering. "It's just there was a lot of invention around doing this end-to-end encryption" — and he pointed at the iPhone as the place people already meet it
Bonus Insights
Siminoff said Ring's systems were already built to be secure, and that what customers wanted on top of that was the guarantee a key gives. "We've, of course, architected our systems to be secure, but people want the assurance of that end-to-end encryption, that sort of key-based encryption."
Shared users — letting another person see the video from a camera — is the one feature he named as surviving the change
He does not treat the AI features as extras. His framing is that they are what a buyer should expect when they buy a Ring, and that an encryption scheme which removes them is asking the customer to give up the product
Siminoff's bottom line is that a camera company can stop holding a permanent key to its customers' video without taking away the cloud features those customers bought the camera for.
Products, Companies & Tools Mentioned
Ring (Amazon's brand of video-enabled smart home and security devices, and the company rolling out the new encryption)
TAKE (Ring's new encryption system, short for Throw Away the Key encryption, which Siminoff says changes or throws away the key so Amazon's servers do not keep permanent access)
Amazon (Ring's owner, and the operator of the servers the new key handling is meant to keep out of a customer's video)
iPhone (Siminoff's reference point for end-to-end encryption when he was asked why this took until now)
Books & Resources Mentioned
Ring says its new encryption limits what it can give police – The Verge (The show's own reading on what the change means for law-enforcement requests)
Ring Superbowl Ad Shows Americans How Powerful Surveillance Systems Have Become, Freaks Them Out – American Civil Liberties Union (The show's own reading on the surveillance anxiety the announcement is answering)
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