Ring's app mixes two very different types of settings without distinguishing between them. Before adjusting anything, it's worth knowing which category you're working in.

Notification controls, including Smart Alerts and Motion Schedules, determine when your phone buzzes. They don't stop recording. Ring's own documentation confirms that with Smart Alerts enabled, the device still detects and records all motion; you just receive fewer push notifications (Ring Blog). Motion Schedules work the same way: during a quiet window, "your device will continue recording" (Ring Blog). These are attention-management tools. They don't affect what Ring collects or retains.

Data controls, including end-to-end encryption, video retention duration, audio recording, Privacy Zones, AI features, and sharing settings, determine what Ring captures, how long it keeps it, and who can access it. These are the settings this guide covers.

The distinction matters because several Ring settings that carry privacy-adjacent names fall squarely in the first category. Knowing the difference keeps you from trading the appearance of privacy for the real thing.

For most users, these are the highest-impact changes. They affect Ring's ability to view, process, and retain your recordings at the platform level, not just how and when you're notified.

1. Enable end-to-end encryption

Available on select Ring devices and subscription tiers. Check Ring's E2EE compatibility list before enabling.

Go to: Ring app → Account → Control Center → Video Encryption → End-to-End Encryption

Ring's default encryption protects footage from outside parties, but not from Ring. Enabling E2EE means Ring cannot decrypt your recordings. It is the only way to put footage genuinely beyond the company's reach (Mozilla Foundation).

The trade-off is real and you should understand it before enabling. E2EE disables shared user accounts, person detection, facial recognition, 24/7 recording, pre-roll recording, and AI-powered video search (Mozilla Foundation). For households that rely on any of those features, this is a genuine choice rather than an obvious win.

If you want maximum privacy: Enable E2EE and accept the feature trade-offs. If you need shared access or AI detection features: Skip E2EE but work through the remaining settings carefully. They matter more in your situation.

2. Cancel or opt out of the AI Pro trial

Applies to all Ring accounts. Free trial is automatic at first setup.

Go to: Ring app → Account → Subscription → Manage Plan

Ring places every new account into a 30-day AI Pro trial at first setup. During that window, footage is routed to Ring's cloud AI systems for processing before most users have reviewed the relevant terms (Mozilla Foundation). Ring's own law enforcement guidelines confirm that Ring has access to your video recordings only when you hold an active subscription, including a free trial, so ending the trial removes one avenue of access (Mozilla Foundation).

Cancel before it auto-converts if privacy is the priority. If you're already on a paid plan, check which AI features are active under your tier. Each one gives Ring explicit permission to process your footage (Mozilla Foundation).

3. Shorten video retention to the minimum

Requires an active Ring subscription. Retention window: 1 to 180 days for video, 1 to 14 days for snapshots.

Go to: Ring app → Account → Control Center → Video Storage Duration

The longer footage sits on Ring's servers, the longer it's accessible to Ring and to anyone who requests it through legal process. Set retention to the shortest window your household can tolerate.

Two caveats: this change applies only to recordings created after you adjust it, and Ring's own privacy policy states that footage you manually delete may remain on its systems for up to 72 hours after deletion is requested (Mozilla Foundation). "Deleted" is not the same as "gone."

With platform-level access addressed, these settings limit what the camera records in the first place, including data about people who have no idea they're being scanned.

4. Turn off Familiar Faces (facial recognition)

Requires a compatible subscription tier. Not available in Illinois, Texas, or Portland, Oregon.

Go to: Ring app → Device Settings → Smart Responses → Familiar Faces

Familiar Faces uses AI to scan every person who appears in front of your camera, comparing their face against a saved library. To recognize anyone in the library, it must run face recognition on everyone, including delivery drivers, neighbors, and passersby who have not consented to a biometric scan (EFF). Even when no match is found, Amazon has said it may retain unmatched biometric data for up to six months (EFF).

The feature is blocked in jurisdictions with active biometric privacy enforcement: Illinois, Texas, and Portland, which reflects Amazon's own legal risk assessment. In Texas, Google paid $1.375 billion to settle a suit over Nest cameras running face recognition on people without consent. Facebook paid $650 million to settle a comparable suit in Illinois; Meta later paid another $1.4 billion to settle a similar case in Texas (EFF). Amazon has declined to commit to keeping Familiar Faces off by default in the future (EFF).

If the feature appears in your app, disable it. If it doesn't appear, confirm it isn't available in your region rather than assuming it's off.

5. Turn off audio recording

Available on most Ring video doorbells and cameras with built-in microphones.

Go to: Ring app → Device Settings → Video Settings → Audio Streaming and Recording

Ring's microphone is on by default. In some states, recording conversations without notice can create consent issues, and audio captured at a front door routinely includes people who have no expectation of being recorded. Disabling audio recording eliminates an entire category of collection that most users don't need for basic security purposes. Mozilla's privacy review specifically flags it as a recommended step (Mozilla Foundation).

6. Configure Privacy Zones to mask sensitive areas

Available on most Ring cameras. Can be configured during or after initial setup.

Go to: Ring app → Device Settings → Privacy Settings → Privacy Zones

Privacy Zones let you permanently black out portions of the camera's field of view, a neighbor's window, a shared pathway, a stretch of public sidewalk, so those areas are never recorded. It's one of the few Ring app privacy settings that reduces what the camera captures rather than just managing how you're notified about it. Most users skip this during setup. Review it now if you haven't.

7. Tighten motion zones to your property

Available on all Ring devices. Note: this reduces capture volume, not cloud handling of footage already captured.

Go to: Ring app → Device Settings → Motion Settings → Motion Zones

A motion zone that extends to the public sidewalk records significantly more people than one scoped to your porch or driveway. Pulling the boundary back to your own property limits how many bystanders end up in your footage and on Ring's servers. As a side benefit, it's also the fastest fix for alert overload, per Ring's own guidance.

These settings close smaller but meaningful gaps around how Ring shares footage and how it routes requests from law enforcement through its platform.

8. Turn off Community Requests in the Neighbors app

Available to all Ring users with the Neighbors feature enabled.

Go to: Ring app → Neighbors → Settings → Community Requests

With Community Requests on, you'll receive solicitations through the Neighbors feature, operated through Axon Evidence, asking you to voluntarily hand footage to law enforcement (Mozilla Foundation). Ring has been rebuilding tools that ease police access to footage, reversing privacy reforms it introduced after its 2023 FTC settlement (EFF). Turning off Community Requests removes you from that solicitation pipeline. It does not prevent Ring from complying with court-ordered legal demands.

9. Restrict or remove geolocation access

OS-level permission. Managed in your phone's settings, not the Ring app.

Go to: Phone Settings → Ring App → Location

Ring requests geolocation access during setup. This permission is optional. Declining it at setup or revoking it afterward doesn't disable core doorbell functionality (Mozilla Foundation). If you granted location access during setup, revisit it now in your phone's app settings. Setting it to "While Using" or "Never" is more conservative than leaving it at the default.

These settings are worth changing. They're also worth holding in context.

In 2023, the FTC charged Ring with allowing employees and third-party contractors to access customer videos without restriction. One employee spent several months viewing thousands of recordings belonging to female users taken from private spaces. Ring also gave hundreds of Ukraine-based contractors essentially unrestricted access to customer video, and used footage to train algorithms without user consent. The resulting $5.8 million settlement required Ring to delete data and algorithms derived from those recordings and implement a formal privacy program (Mozilla Foundation). The changes came after regulatory pressure, not before.

Ring has no local storage and no offline mode. Footage passes through Ring's cloud by design, firmware updates happen automatically, and the company's relationship with law enforcement has shifted more than once. The steps above reduce your exposure. They don't change the underlying architecture.

If you only make three changes, the minimum effective setup is: cancel or let expire the AI Pro trial, enable E2EE if your device supports it (or at minimum shorten retention to the lowest tolerable window), and turn off Familiar Faces.

After that, check back. Verify E2EE persisted after any major firmware update. Confirm Familiar Faces is still off. Amazon has declined to commit to keeping that feature off by default going forward (EFF), and Ring's track record on privacy-first defaults gives little reason to assume future features will be any different. When Ring extends its AI feature set under new subscription tiers, treat each addition as something to evaluate rather than automatically accept.