Ring’s Video Verification: A Limited Shield Against AI Fakes
▼ Summary
– Ring has launched a new tool called Ring Verify to confirm that videos downloaded from its cloud have not been edited or altered in any way.
– The verification process involves uploading a video to the Ring Verify website, which checks for a “digital security seal” based on C2PA standards.
– Any modification, including minor edits like adjusting brightness, cropping, or trimming, will cause a video to fail the verification test.
– The tool cannot verify videos downloaded before December 2025, videos altered after download, videos from sharing sites that compress files, or videos recorded with end-to-end encryption.
– If a video fails verification, Ring cannot specify what was changed and suggests obtaining an original version directly from the Ring app.
A new tool from Ring aims to help users confirm the authenticity of security footage, but its strict criteria mean it offers only a partial defense against the growing threat of AI-generated fakes. The Ring Verify feature provides a “digital security seal” for videos downloaded from the company’s cloud storage. Users can upload a video file to the dedicated Ring Verify website to receive confirmation that the footage has not been altered since it was originally downloaded from Ring’s servers. This system is designed to combat misinformation by providing a layer of trust for shared security clips.
However, the tool’s utility is significantly limited by its narrow scope. Ring Verify cannot authenticate any video that has been edited, cropped, filtered, or altered in even the smallest way after download. This includes simple adjustments like trimming a second from the clip, changing the brightness, or applying a basic filter. Furthermore, videos that were downloaded before the feature’s launch in December 2025 are ineligible for verification. The system also fails to verify videos that have been uploaded to social media or video-sharing platforms, as the compression these sites use is considered an alteration.
Perhaps most critically, the tool is powerless against the sophisticated AI-generated videos that are increasingly circulating online. Since these fabricated clips are not authentic Ring downloads to begin with, they would never pass the verification check. The system is built to confirm a negative, that nothing has changed, rather than to detect specific manipulations. If a video fails verification, Ring cannot tell the user what was altered or how; it can only state that the file is not in its original, unmodified state.
For videos recorded with end-to-end encryption enabled, verification is not possible at all due to the nature of the encryption. Ring suggests that if someone needs an original, verifiable version of a video, they should request a direct share link from the Ring app from the person who originally recorded it. This new feature represents a step toward addressing digital trust, but its stringent and easily broken conditions highlight the immense challenge of verifying media in an age of advanced and accessible synthetic content.
(Source: The Verge)
