Mica Wilson wants to talk about privacy. “Privacy is so nuanced,” she said. “It’s both art and science, and has ushered in a wave of conscious innovation.”
Wilson joined Ring, a leader in smart home security, in August 2021 and leads one of its newest teams, the Privacy Operations team. Ring has always considered privacy foundational to the company’s efforts. Wilson’s newly formed team continues to advance this commitment by innovating on the design and integration of privacy into each step of the product development process.
With years of experience in privacy, cybersecurity, and data governance, Wilson fosters an appreciation for strong data management, systems, and optimization. She also holds a deep-rooted belief that privacy must be top-of-mind in today’s connected society. When the opportunity arose to help Ring enhance how it works through challenging privacy considerations, she jumped at the chance.
“It's critical to strike the right balance of customer privacy needs and innovation that delights customers with fresh and effective solutions,” said Wilson. Core to these efforts, she added, is "effectively advocating the principle of transparency." In practice, that means building strong, accessible, and scalable mechanisms that empower Ring teams to design products with intention. It also requires Ring to effectively communicate how the company honors customer privacy and encourage customers to respect the privacy of others, Wilson said.
“The pace of innovation, the creativity around furthering Ring’s mission of making neighborhoods safer is an infectious energy to be around,” Wilson said. “Because privacy is so integral to Ring’s products and mission, my team is in a position to be forward-thinking and to advocate for privacy in new ways. Ring is a place where privacy is truly part of the innovation equation.”
Since its founding in 2013, Ring has been on a mission to make neighborhoods safer. From the Video Doorbell to Ring Alarm, the company’s smart home security product line offers users innovative, affordable whole-home and neighborhood security. One of the ways Wilson’s team supports teams across Ring is through privacy assessments for new products in development that involve personal data.
“The privacy assessment is how we strengthen and challenge how we build trust with customers through our products and features,” Wilson said. “Are we delighting the customer? How does the product impact neighborhoods beyond the individual customer? How can we use transparency, choice, or control to strengthen the customer’s agency over their data? These are just some of the questions we consider when evaluating privacy.”
Looking ahead, Wilson said her team is in a unique position to drive the ongoing conversation about how Ring products empower customers to respect the privacy of other community members.
“Because of the nature of the space Ring is innovating in, the way we think about privacy has to be a few steps ahead of the curve,” she said. “We challenge ourselves not to rest on the precedent we’ve set before and instead think about whether we need to set a higher privacy and trust bar for our latest inventions. It’s a challenging position to be in, but a very exciting and rewarding one. I can’t wait to see what the future holds.”
