The Fulu Foundation, a nonprofit that pays out bounties for removing user-hostile features, is hunting for a way to keep Ring cameras from sending data to Amazon--without breaking the hardware. Usually, when you see a feel-good story about finding a lost dog, you don't immediately react with fear and revulsion. But that was indeed the case in response to a Super Bowl commercial from Amazon-owned security camera company Ring. There's now a group offering to dole out a $10,000 bounty to wrest back control of the user data Ring controls. The ad showed off a new feature from Ring called Search Party.

Ring faces privacy backlash over its AI-powered'Search Party' feature, which uses outdoor cameras to track lost dogs and is enabled by default. PCWorld reports that Ring ended its Flock partnership but remains committed to expanding'Search Party' despite surveillance concerns from its Super Bowl ad. A leaked email from Ring founder Jamie Siminoff suggests the AI tracking feature may extend beyond pets to broader applications. Ring's been in damage-control mode ever since its now-infamous "lost dog" Super Bowl ad, furiously spinning the sinister imagery of digital "bounding boxes" locking in on a wayward pooch and a simulated aerial view of dozens of homes scanning the neighborhood. Rather than giving off warm fuzzies--your Ring camera can help find lost dogs!--the Super Bowl ad gave off serious "big brother" vibes to many viewers.

Ring has expanded its AI-powered'Search Party for Dogs' feature to non-Ring users, allowing anyone to request help finding missing pets through the Ring app. PCWorld reports that the tool scans footage from nearby outdoor Ring cameras and sends alerts with images and video clips when potential matches are found. Users maintain control over video sharing and can opt out of the feature, which is enabled by default to enhance community involvement in pet recovery efforts. Roughly two months ago, Ring rolled out an AI-powered tool that lets Ring owners band together to find a missing pooch. Now, Ring says anyone with a wayward pet can ask for help using the feature, not just Ring users.

In a move to help alert people to the spread of nearby blazes, Ring is partnering with Watch Duty to let users share their videos on the wildfire tracking app. The nonprofit Watch Duty is partnering with Ring, the Amazon-owned maker of doorbell cameras, to help users share videos of nearby wildfires on Watch Duty's wildfire tracking app. The result is Fire Watch, a new feature being added to Ring's Neighbors app, the stand-alone service that lets users see activity from nearby Ring cameras. If there is a fire in the area, users will be notified and can go into an emergency mode that lets them share videos from their Ring cameras to the feed about that specific fire on Watch Duty's platform . It's not a posting free-for-all; Watch Duty says it will choose which Ring videos to show in Fire Watch, based on relevance.

When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. Ring's AI-powered pet finder is coming--and you're already signed up Ring's new AI-enabled Search Party feature enlists the help of nearby Ring cameras--including yours, unless you say otherwise--to spot missing pets. Ring cameras banding together to help find missing pets--what's not to like? But while Ring's Search Party has a laudable goal, the just-announced functionality is yet another community-minded Ring feature that's on by default. Introduced during Amazon's big hardware reveal last month, a Search Party gets initiated when a neighbor reports a lost dog via Ring's Neighbor's app.

Google's Gemini AI has offended my dog, but at least it can automatically turn the lights on for me. A cat jumped up on my couch. The alert about the leaping feline is something my Google Home app sent me when I was out at a party. Turns out it was my dog. This notification came through a day after I turned on Google's Gemini for Home capability in the Google Home app.

Amazon's next-gen Alexa+ chatbot is now available in four new Echo devices and a bevy of Ring cameras. The company also debuted three new Kindle Scribe tablets, one with a color screen. All products featured on WIRED are independently selected by our editors. However, we may receive compensation from retailers and/or from purchases of products through these links. It got a large language model power-up earlier this year in the form of Alexa+ (a paid upgrade for non-Amazon Prime subscribers), and now, Amazon has fresh hardware to take advantage of the assistant's new capabilities.

It wouldn't be an Amazon Black Friday sale if the retailer didn't discount some of the best gadgets from its in-house brands. Case and point: if you're looking to add a security camera or two to your home, Ring devices are included in the long list of Amazon's best Black Friday 2023 deals. The highlight of the promotion is a two-for-one package that bundles together a third-generation Echo Show 5 smart display with a Ring Video Doorbell. Normally, Amazon sells the two together for about $190, but after a 65 percent discount, the bundle is just $65, with both the satin nickel and venetian bronze Ring Doorbell colorways included in the sale. This bundle brings together Ring's entry-level Video Doorbell and a third-generation Echo Show 5 for just $65 after a 65 percent discount.

James Milward, an IT expert from Surrey, trained artificial intelligence ( AI ) software so it could identify the mammals in the livestream from his Ring smart camera.

Tired of annoying walled gardens and widespread privacy abuses, a growing number of consumers are building their own alternatives to Amazon's home surveillance system, Ring. In many instances, the home-rolled solutions have most or all of the benefits of Ring--but without being owned and controlled by one of the largest and creepiest megacorporations on the planet. While it requires a little extra work, third-party cameras, NAS (Network Attached Storage) devices, or dedicated NVRs (Network Video Recorders) can be combined to build Big Tech home surveillance alternatives that can scale depending on the budget. Many NAS devices make it fairly easy to duplicate app-based home monitoring. Both Synology and QNAP provide dedicated software solutions, both identically dubbed "Surveillance Station," which allow you to monitor multiple streaming cameras in a browser across mobile and desktop devices.