When setting up any new internet-connected device, don't stick with the default settings. Doing so introduces security risks, and it's also a less-than-optimal way to use the features available to you. If you have a Ring camera or doorbell, there are a whole host of changes you can make to minimize annoyance and maximize privacy.

Snooze Motion Alerts when you're outside

Motion alerts are among the most useful features of any security camera, but you don't need a notification to your phone when you are the one moving around your property. You can snooze alerts in certain situations, such as when you're outside doing yard work or hosting a party. Global Snooze pauses alerts for all cameras and doorbells for a set duration, while Alerts Snooze allows you to pause notifications from a specific device. When Snooze is enabled, you'll still get Doorbell Rings and Priority Alerts.

In the Ring app, tap the motion icon, choose the snooze duration, and tap Start Snooze. For a single device, tap the More icon on the camera you want to snooze and tap the bell icon to turn Alerts Snooze on or off.

If you have monitoring via Virtual Security Guard, you can turn on Motion Snooze for enrolled devices to temporarily pause that service.

Optimize Motion Zones to exclude certain areas

Another way to curate motion alerts is to customize your Ring camera's Motion Zones—for example, to exclude busy streets with lots of cars driving by as well as private, low-traffic areas you don't need to monitor. You can add up to three motion zones per device under your camera's Settings > Motion Settings > Camera Motion Zones. Tap Add Zone, drag the edges of the zone boundaries within your camera's view, and hit Save.

Set up Smart Alerts to reduce unnecessary notifications

In addition to narrowing motion zones, you can choose whether you receive motion alerts and/or recordings specifically for people, vehicles, and packages while minimizing notifications from other sources of movement. (Not all Ring devices are compatible with all three Smart Alert categories, and you'll need a Ring subscription to use these features.) To enable Smart Alerts, go to your device's Settings > Motion Settings > Smart Alerts, then tap Enable Feature > Continue and choose your preferred alerts.

Customize your Neighborhood Area for relevant alerts

Neighbors is an online community through which Ring users can share footage and receive updates for their area. It is the broad umbrella for controversial features like Community Requests and Search Party (which I'll get into below), but it could be useful for keeping abreast of issues in your neighborhood—like fire or other safety alerts—even if you don't make your camera's content public. You can customize your area so you're only getting relevant alerts, especially if your neighborhood is more active on the app. Go to Menu > Neighbors > Settings > Customize Neighborhood to adjust the boundaries of your area.

Turn off Community Requests from law enforcement

Community Requests is a Neighbors feature through which law enforcement can ask users to share video from their Ring devices. While Ring says that footage isn't shared automatically, and law enforcement doesn't have access to live feeds, many users still have privacy concerns related to this type of collaboration. (Note that Ring also had a short-lived partnership with Flock Safety, which would have made it easier for law enforcement agencies to request Ring camera footage using Flock's software.)

You can simply ignore Community Requests in your Neighbors feed, or you can turn these requests off entirely under Neighborhood Settings > Feed Settings. Deselect Community Requests and hit Apply.

Opt out of Search Party's surveillance

Ring launched its Search Party feature in a Super Bowl ad earlier this year, ostensibly to help users find lost dogs in their neighborhood. Search Party uses AI to identify pets in your Ring's field of vision and pools the footage with other cameras. Obviously, this functionality comes with significant privacy concerns, not least of which is whether and how your footage could be shared with law enforcement to surveil people rather than pets. You can disable Search Party entirely under Control Center > Search Party. Choose the blue Pet icon next to each camera.

Disconnect from Amazon Sidewalk's wireless network

Amazon Sidewalk uses your Ring device—and others in your neighborhood—to create a mesh network so said devices stay connected to the internet even if your wifi is weak or goes down. Amazon says that this feature provides security (because you'll still get important alerts) and extends the range for other devices like smart lights, smart locks, and pet locators. But you may not want to use your bandwidth for this purpose nor introduce potential privacy concerns to your home network. You can disable Amazon Sidewalk in the Control Center on your Ring app.

Disable third-party provider sharing

Like many apps and services, Ring shares certain information with third parties for purposes like personalized ads. While the company says it does not sell users' personal data, in 2020, researchers at the Electronic Frontier Foundation found that the Ring app was packed with third-party trackers that were sending personally identifiable information to analytics and marketing firms.

In response, Ring added an opt-out feature, so you can adjust your settings to keep this information private from third-party providers. In the Ring app, go to Menu > Control Center > Cookies and Third Party Service Providers and turn off Third-Party Web and App Analytics Cookies and Personalized Advertising.

Enable end-to-end encryption to protect your Ring footage

If you want maximum privacy for your Ring footage, consider enabling end-to-end encryption (E2EE), which prevents anyone except you from accessing your recordings. This adds an extra layer of protection against hackers as well as Ring itself (including compliance with law enforcement requests), as videos are hidden behind a passphrase and can be viewed only on your enrolled mobile device. You'll also need a (paid) Ring Protect subscription. The major downside is that you lose access to a pretty sizeable list of features, including 24/7 video recording and Person Detection. To set up E2EE, go to your Control Center > Video Encryption > End-to-End Encryption.

Set up local storage for more space and better privacy

With a Ring Protect subscription, Ring will store your videos in the cloud for 180 days, which you can shorten to as little as one day if you are concerned about someone gaining access to your footage (and E2EE isn't enabled). Unfortunately, without a Ring Protect subscription, there's no easy option to store videos from your camera, and you will probably want to save recordings for at least some period of time. You can set up local storage to a MicroSD card through Ring Edge, though you'll need to invest in a Ring Alarm Pro Base Station. This gives you more control, more space, and more privacy. Of course, another alternative is to look for a camera that offers local storage to begin with.