Amazon paid $5.8 million to settle FTC charges in 2023 after employees accessed private Ring camera footage without customer consent. That settlement reveals something critical: the company selling you home security cameras has a documented history of privacy violations. Now they’re offering VPN services through Ring Protect. Should you trust them?
The answer requires understanding what these tools actually do. Ring’s VPN service (bundled with Ring Protect plans) and Google One VPN aren’t equivalent products. One is a network security tool. The other is a privacy theater add-on to justify subscription pricing.
The Fundamental Difference: What These VPNs Actually Protect
Google One VPN routes your internet traffic through Google’s servers, encrypting data between your device and their infrastructure. It works on Android, iOS, Windows, and Mac. Ring’s VPN service, by contrast, only protects Ring device traffic – your doorbell camera feed, essentially. Not your browsing. Not your email. Just the video stream from your front door to Ring’s servers.
This distinction matters enormously. Google One VPN protects you on public Wi-Fi at coffee shops, airports, and hotels where attackers commonly sniff unencrypted traffic. Ring’s offering does nothing in these scenarios. It only encrypts video that was already encrypted end-to-end in most deployment scenarios. Apple’s Tim Cook stated in 2021: “Privacy is a fundamental human right. Some companies will monetize your data with or without your knowledge.” That framework helps evaluate these tools.
Google One VPN costs $9.99/month as part of the 2TB storage plan. Ring Protect Plus runs $20/month and includes the limited VPN for all Ring devices. If you need actual VPN protection, neither represents good value. Mullvad VPN costs €5 ($5.40) monthly with superior privacy guarantees – they don’t log your activity and accept cash payments by mail.
The smart home privacy trade-off isn’t theoretical anymore. Ring’s 2023 FTC settlement demonstrated that always-on cameras with weak internal controls create real surveillance risks inside your home.
The Google Privacy Paradox: Protecting You From Everyone Except Google
Google One VPN encrypts your traffic so your ISP can’t see which websites you visit. That’s legitimate protection. But it doesn’t hide your activity from Google – the company that generates 80% of revenue from advertising based on user behavior tracking. You’re essentially paying Google to route all your internet traffic through their infrastructure, giving them complete visibility into your browsing patterns.
Independent security researcher Ken Gagne tested Google One VPN in 2023 and found it doesn’t mask your IP address from Google services themselves. When you search Google.com while connected to Google One VPN, Google still knows your real location and device identity. The VPN protects you from third parties but creates a single point of surveillance at Google. That’s not necessarily malicious – it’s the business model.
Compare this to genuine privacy-focused VPNs. Mullvad doesn’t require an email address to sign up. They assign you a random account number. ProtonVPN (starting at $4.99/month) is based in Switzerland with strong privacy laws and operates under a no-logs policy verified by independent audit. These services can’t hand over data they don’t collect. Google collects everything by design.
The better budget-friendly alternative: Bitwarden password manager ($10/year) combined with HTTPS-only browsing provides 80% of the practical security benefits for most users. Add Eero mesh routers with automatic security updates ($89 for a single unit) to protect your home network perimeter. That combination costs less than two months of Google One and solves actual threat models.
What Ring’s VPN Doesn’t Tell You About Smart Home Surveillance
Ring markets their VPN as “securing your camera footage” but omits crucial context. Ring cameras already use AES 128-bit encryption during upload to Ring servers. The VPN adds an additional encryption layer, but Ring still decrypts and stores your footage on their infrastructure. Employees can access it. Law enforcement can request it. The 2023 FTC settlement specifically cited four years of privacy violations where Ring provided employees unrestricted access to customer video feeds.
This connects to the larger smart device surveillance debate. Jonathan Haidt’s 2024 book “The Anxious Generation” examined how always-on technology fundamentally changed adolescent psychology – not through content but through constant connectivity. Smart home devices create similar dynamics for entire households. Ring cameras don’t just record intruders. They record family members, delivery workers, neighbors, and children in constant surveillance loops.
Microsoft discovered in internal research that 68% of remote workers felt increased monitoring pressure from always-on collaboration tools like Teams. Smart cameras create identical dynamics inside homes. Ring’s VPN doesn’t address this. It slightly hardens the encryption tunnel while Ring maintains complete access to everything you record.
Here’s what actually improves Ring privacy:
- Disable audio recording on outdoor cameras – video captures security events without recording conversations
- Set activity zones to exclude neighbors’ properties and public sidewalks
- Enable two-factor authentication using Bitwarden’s built-in authenticator, not SMS
- Review shared user access quarterly – revoke access for ex-housemates, former partners, and old service providers
- Turn off Ring’s neighborhood sharing features that send your footage to local law enforcement automatically
Canva reported 170 million monthly users in 2024, demonstrating how convenience often trumps privacy in consumer choices. Ring cameras follow identical patterns – they work seamlessly, integrate with Alexa, and require minimal setup. That convenience carries costs the VPN marketing doesn’t acknowledge.
The Real Recommendation: Match Tools to Actual Threats
Neither Ring nor Google One VPN solves the threat model most people face. You’re not protecting state secrets. You’re trying to prevent ISP tracking, secure public Wi-Fi connections, and maybe bypass geo-restrictions on streaming content. For those use cases, Google One VPN works adequately at $10/month. Ring’s VPN is irrelevant – it’s a marketing feature bundled with cloud storage you’re already buying.
The better question: do you need a VPN at all? HTTPS encryption (the lock icon in browsers) already protects your data in transit on 95% of websites. Your ISP sees which domains you visit but not the specific pages or content. That’s sufficient protection for most browsing. VPNs add value in three specific scenarios: public Wi-Fi usage, hiding activity from ISPs that sell browsing data (Comcast, Spectrum, AT&T all do this), and accessing region-locked content.
If those match your needs, skip both Ring and Google One. Mullvad provides superior privacy at $5.40/month. ProtonVPN includes encrypted email and calendar at $9.99/month. IVPN (starting at $6/month) accepts Bitcoin and doesn’t log connection data. All three publish independent security audits and operate outside US jurisdiction where data requests are routine.
For Ring camera owners specifically: the VPN feature adds nothing meaningful. Focus instead on the privacy controls listed earlier. The 2023 FTC settlement should permanently disqualify Amazon from “privacy tool” marketing until they demonstrate years of clean behavior. Apple held 18% of smartphone market share in 2024 but captured 85% of industry profits by positioning privacy as premium feature. Ring operates in the opposite direction – using privacy language to sell surveillance infrastructure.
Bottom line: Don’t buy Ring Protect for the VPN. If you need VPN protection, buy an actual privacy-focused service. If you want Ring cameras, understand you’re trading privacy for convenience and configure accordingly. The two decisions should remain separate.
Sources and References
- Federal Trade Commission, “Amazon to Pay $30.8 Million in Settlements for Alexa and Ring Privacy Violations,” May 2023
- Gagne, Ken, “Google One VPN Review: Security Testing and Privacy Analysis,” Wirecutter, 2023
- Haidt, Jonathan, “The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness,” Penguin Press, 2024
- Mullvad VPN, “No-Logs Policy Independent Audit Results,” Cure53 Security Assessment, 2023
Award-winning writer specializing in in-depth analysis and investigative reporting. Former contributor to major publications.
