Ring says its new encryption limits what it can give police

Ring is changing how it protects customer video, and it’s trying to do it without breaking the features people actually use. The Amazon-owned company says its new method is called TAKE, short for Throw Away the Key Encryption, and it’s meant to keep videos more locked down than the setup Ring has used before.

The key twist is what Amazon can and can’t do with the footage in its cloud. TAKE is designed to limit when and why those videos are accessible, instead of relying on traditional end-to-end encryption. Ring says that still leaves room for features like alerts for people and packages, AI-powered video search, and video descriptions.

The rollout starts in September and won’t be limited to paid accounts. Ring says TAKE will arrive gradually and eventually become the default encryption for all customers.

That timing matters. Ring says the change comes after a year of intense scrutiny, and this looks like the company’s answer to a familiar problem: how to promise stronger privacy without giving up the cloud features that make the product useful in the first place.