End-to-end encryption for RingCentral Video FAQ
Last updated on September 07, 2021
The following is a list of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about end-to-end encryption for RingCentral Video.
- What is end-to-end encryption (E2EE) and what does it do?
- Why does E2EE matter? Who will need it?
- How is E2EE different from the standard data-in-transit and data-at-rest encryption?
- What features are not available when E2EE is enabled?
- Can users still dial in to E2EE meetings?
- When would I use E2EE?
- Do users need to have an account to participate in end-to-end encrypted meetings?
- Do free users have access to end-to-end encryption?
- How do I verify that my meeting is end-to-end-encrypted?
What is end-to-end encryption (E2EE) and what does it do?
End-to-end encryption in video conferencing protects communication from being intercepted, accessed, or tampered with while in transit by good actors (the service provider) and malicious parties. This means your data is protected from third-party attacks.
When a RingCentral Video call is end-to-end encrypted, only the intended participants can access your video conferencing content, including audio, video, in-meeting chat, and files shared during the meeting.
Why does E2EE matter? Who will need it?
Organizations who want additional protection for their sensitive meeting information can use E2EE to ensure that only their participants can access their video conferencing content. Regardless of a participant’s location and internet connection, E2EE adds an extra layer of security and confidentiality in addition to the traditional data-in-transit encryption.
How is E2EE different from the standard data-in-transit and data-at-rest encryption?
A “normal” RingCentral video conferencing is protected by data-in-transit encryption, and when video meetings are recorded, encryption is at rest. This means that your communication is protected, including over public networks, from eavesdropping and interception. It also means that as part of managing the video conference, RingCentral Video has access to the communication for enrichment – including virtual background, transcription, and recording. These value-added options help enrich your meeting experience for participants.
In cases where meeting content must be private, E2EE may be invoked to ensure that only participants can see the unencrypted content. RingCentral can still mix the video and audio participants in the meeting, for example, but RingCentral can’t access the audio or video streams to provide value-added services (in particular, closed captioning and transcription). Services provided in the RingCentral app (client-side) continue to be available, including virtual background.
Note: We recognize the importance of many of these services for our users and are working on ways to move some of the back-end processing (such as transcription) to the client-side so that you can still have an enriched video conferencing experience.
What features are not available when E2EE is enabled?
Enabling end-to-end encryption for meetings requires all meeting participants to join using either the RingCentral app web client or the RingCentral app desktop. Once E2EE is enabled, only meeting participants can access meeting content. Any feature that requires RingCentral to access meeting content is currently unavailable/disabled.
Enabling E2EE disables the following features:
- PSTN and VoIP calls (dial-in and Call me/Call out)
- Cloud recording
- Live transcript
- Closed captions
Can users still dial in to E2EE meetings?
Dial-in and Call me/Call out capabilities are not supported for E2EE meetings. Once E2EE is enabled, users must join using either the RingCentral web client or the RingCentral app for desktop. Users cannot join by telephone or SIP/H.323 devices as these endpoints don’t support RingCentral SDK to perform end-to-end encryption.
When would I use E2EE?
E2EE is best for your most confidential meetings, as it provides an additional layer of privacy and security to meetings. While providing extra security, some functionality may be limited when using E2EE calls. For calls that require some or all of the disabled features, E2EE should be disabled.
Using E2EE is encouraged to provide enhanced privacy to your meetings.
Do users need to have an account to participate in end-to-end encrypted meetings?
Yes. All users must be signed in to the RingCentral app (desktop, web, or mobile app) to participate in an E2EE meeting.
Do free users have access to end-to-end encryption?
E2EE will be available for paid accounts on the account level and available to everyone in any paid accounts, including both free and paid users. However, free accounts cannot schedule or start ad-hoc E2EE meetings.
Today, customers who purchased RingCental Video plans may have free and paid users in the same account. Free and paid users will be subject to different service limits. Please refer to RingCentral Video Plans and Pricing for details.
The account administrator will have to specifically add free users to the account as internal users. That being said, it is the account administrator’s responsibility to validate each user's identity before adding them as an internal user.
Note: E2EE will be available for free users only if the account administrator adds the users to any paid account.
E2EE availability based on account and user types
User Type
|
Schedule E2EE meeting
|
Attend E2EE meeting
|
Paid users in paid accounts
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Free users in paid accounts
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Free users in free accounts
|
No
|
Yes
|
How do I verify that my meeting is end-to-end-encrypted?
Meetings secured by E2EE will show a unique lock icon on the bottom left of the window.
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