At first glance, it's a tough ask: allow Amazon-owned Ring to fly a mini drone carrying a camera around your house, all in the name of security. Ring Always Home Cam was undoubtedly the weirdest of the announcements at yesterday's big Amazon Fall hardware event, but while it may seem like an Onion gag the security firm insists it's headed to your living room in 2021.
Amazon is either brazen, blasé, or oblivious to its privacy reputation, and the result is borderline-creepy products like Ring Always Home Cam and the Echo Show 10. Unveiled today in a product-packed event that was punctuated by monologues about how working-from-home has changed the landscape for what we expect from our devices, on the one hand they're a perhaps logical progression of the smart home devices Amazon has already shown us.
Ring is expanding into your car, with three new vehicle security products at least one of which that Tesla owners will get to experience first. Announced during Amazon's product-packed event today, Ring Car Alarm, Ring Car Cam, and Ring Car Connect mark the security company's expansion out of the connected home and into vehicles, something it says has been a top request from Ring users.
Amazon just revealed a security camera that can rise up out of its dock and fly around your home. It's called the Ring Always Home Cam, and it can rise up... out of its dock... and fly throughout your home. This is one of a line of new Ring devices revealed today, including a Ring Car Alarm, Ring Car Cam, and Ring Car Connect.
The old is new again to some extent. Despite the privacy scandals it has been involved in, Ring remains one of the most popular smart video doorbells in the market, in no small part to its association with Amazon. It has launched more products after its inaugural Video Doorbell but it's not going back to the basics. Taking a cue from Apple's naming strategy, it's simply calling the new Ring Video Doorbell and while it looks exactly the same, it's packing quite a punch inside.
The 2nd gen Ring Alarm has been revealed, with less intrusive wireless sensors and the option of professional monitoring for extra security. Successor to the original Ring Alarm, the new system sticks with the do-it-yourself approach but promises to be both easier to install and use.
Smart home security company Ring was so popular that Amazon bought it up just a few years after it launched. Most popular for its smart video doorbell, Ring quickly cornered that market and its name almost became synonymous to that category. And then came the exposé that showed how the company was too quick to share users' data with third-parties. Now Ring has put its data collection on hold but it won't be forever.
Amazon's home security company Ring has announced two new connected doorbell products, one of which leaked almost in its entirety in recent weeks, as well as a new feature called Pre-Roll. The new Ring Video Doorbell 3 is joined by the Video Doorbell 3 Plus, the latter of which also offers that Pre-Roll technology. These models build upon the features offered by the Ring Video Doorbell 2 model.
Although it was recently involved in a few security and privacy scandals, Ring, now owned by Amazon, remains one of the more popular smart video doorbell options in the market today. And to make sure it doesn't lose that lead due to controversy, the company is getting ready to launch its next mid-range video doorbell, which has now all but leaked completely. But while the Ring Video Doorbell 3 seems to offer a reasonable upgrade over its predecessor, it is the unexpected "Plus" model that could give competitors a reason to worry.
Ring has found itself at the center of some controversy lately, and today, it's rolling out some new security features in response. There are two areas of focus with today's updates, as they bolster account security by making two-factor authentication mandatory and give more control over how user data is shared with third-party companies.
The Control Center first announced during CES 2020 is now available for Ring users to access. The company describes Control Center as a privacy dashboard that'll enable users to view and manage their various connected devices and Linked Accounts, as well as Shared Users and certain important security and privacy features. Ring plans to expand this feature in the future.
The EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) revealed a study this week which showed the Ring Doorbell app for Android to be tracking users with 3rd-party systems. Included in the mix are four "analytics and marketing companies" that received information not explicitly sent by the user of the Ring app. This is not the first time Ring has exposed user data to 3rd-party groups - it's not even really all that rare.