For the past several months Ring has been under attack, receiving reports of home security cameras being hijacked by unknown users. And now Ring is trying to do something about it.
While not a hack in the strict sense of the word (seriously, enable two-factor authentication and opt for stronger passwords), these incidents have brought a lot of attention to Ring, as the company's home security cameras and video doorbells are everywhere.
At the same time, the company has been criticized for its lack of transparency in allowing law enforcement agencies to participate in its Neighbors app and view and store footage of incidents.
Ring hopes to alleviate all of these concerns with a new feature in its app called Control Center, which will be rolled out by the end of January and will allow users to control which of their devices and third-party services (Alexa etc.) that are connected to Ring products.
More importantly, Control Center will allow users to opt-out of receiving video requests from law enforcement agencies; future updates to Control Center will also make it easier to view and change other privacy and security settings.
Given Ring's near-silence during these various reports, the fact that the company is updating its app to be more transparent about who can view your videos is welcome news and long overdue.
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