There’s a $10,000 reward waiting for anyone who can disconnect Ring doorbells from Amazon’s cloud

With Ring facing backlash over its Search Party feature, new software challenges developers to transfer Ring doorbell footage from Amazon’s cloud — and to users’ own devices. The Volo Foundation, the consumer advocacy group co-founded by YouTuber Louis Rossman, He offers an initial reward of $10,000 Anyone can integrate Ring doorbells with a PC or local server, cutting off access to Amazon’s servers.

Ring users currently have to pay a subscription fee to store recordings in the Amazon cloud. While the company does have a local storage option through Ring Edge, it’s only available With Ring Alarm Proand still requires a subscription. There is also an option to secure your videos With end-to-end encryptionWhich means neither Ring nor third parties can see your footage, but it is stored on Amazon’s servers.

“In an ideal world, device owners would be able to modify this software to send that footage to their computer or server, if they so choose,” O’Reilly writes. However, he warns that bounty solutions will be limited under the DMCA, which “means that distributing a tool or mechanism to other security-minded Ring owners to circumvent those locks and assert ownership of their video remains a copyright crime.”

The first person or team to submit a solution that meets Fulu’s solution Eligibility requirements He will win the reward. To qualify, developers must integrate Ring doorbells released in 2021 or later with a computer or local server, and ensure they “no longer send data to Amazon servers or require connection to Amazon devices to function.” The initial reward starts at $10,000, and Fulu will match any additional donations made by backers up to $10,000.