If the sour taste has still not left your mouth after Ring’s Super Bowl ad, there is a $10,000 prize for anyone who can find a security flaw in the company’s cameras.
The bounty was launched by the Fulu Foundation, a nonprofit set up to raise awareness of consumers’ lack of ownership over their tech. The organization will pay $10,000 up front and match community donations up to an additional $10,000 for eligible submissions.
Rewards won’t be handed out for just any security vulnerability, though. In keeping with Fulu’s ethos, the winner will be the first to figure out a way to run a Ring camera system locally, and block any data from being transmitted to Amazon’s servers.
“The problem lies in the software that runs on [Ring] devices and directs video to be sent back to Amazon’s servers,” said Kevin O’Reilly, executive director of the Fulu Foundation.
“In an ideal world, device owners would be able to modify that software to instead push that footage to their own computer or server, should they so choose. Our bounty seeks to provide that option to Ring camera owners.”
The nonprofit cited Ring’s past privacy lapses, including one that resulted in a $5.6 million settlement with the FTC, to support its claim that users should not be beholden to its subscription model.
Ring’s current plans range from $49.99 per year for the cheapest single-camera option to $99.99 per month for Virtual Security Guard with live video monitoring by dedicated agents.
You don’t necessarily need a subscription to make use of the hardware, provided all you want is basic functionality. Users can still view live video, receive motion alerts, and use two-way talk, but recording footage or anything more advanced is reserved for paying subscribers.
Fulu Foundation, founded in August 2025 by marketing professor Maria Palazzo, also pointed to social media users who claimed to be outraged following Ring’s controversial Super Bowl ad highlighting its AI Search Party feature.
One wrote: “The Super Bowl commercial was the last straw. They want to sell me hardware, sell me a subscription to run the hardware, sell me a subscription to monitor my system, and then sell all of my information to nefarious actors. They’re basically sacrificing my community’s privacy and security, and charging me for the experience. It’s not worth it. I’m going to DIY my own security camera network using Raspberry Pi devices.”
The nonprofit is ultimately looking to raise awareness of the tech ownership issue with Ring and reshape Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which prohibits the circumvention of tech controls.
Right-to-repair activists have long called for Section 1201 reform. Through the US Copyright Office, certain exemptions have been established since the law was enacted in 1998, but the current law still prohibits the kind of subscription-busting changes for which Fulu Foundation is pushing.
The Register contacted Ring for its take, and we’ll update the story if it responds. ®