Ring announces new security control center in response to privacy concerns

In response to widespread criticism over privacy, Ring has announced a new security dashboard is coming to its app. The feature will allow users to view and control privacy and security settings in a single dashboard. Upon launch later this month, the control center will let users see and manage connected devices and third-party services, and will include the ability to opt out of receiving video requests from police. The ability to view and manage other settings won’t come until a later version.

The crisis so far — Several occurrences of Ring users being harassed by hackers were reported by Vice in December. In the most oft-cited incident, an 8-year-old girl was spoken to by a hacker claiming to be Santa Claus. After news of the hacks broke, more than 1,500 Ring passwords were discovered on the dark web.

Late in December, users filed a federal lawsuit against Ring and its parent company, Amazon. The companies are accused of negligence, invasion of users' privacy, breach of the implied warranty, breach of implied contract, unjust enrichment, and violation of the unfair competition law. Ring’s lackluster response, which appeared to blame users for not taking enough measures to protect themselves, was certainly taken into account in the suit.

We’ll see if these new measures quell users’ concerns. The fact that all the security features won’t be available at once may cause some trepidation.