The CEO of Amazon subsidiary— Ring, Jamie Siminoff, is set to step down from his role by the end of this month, the company announced on Wednesday.
On March 22, Siminoff will acquire the role of chief inventor and Elizabeth Hamren will succeed him as CEO. Most recently, Hamren served as COO of the chat app Discord, and has held executive roles at Microsoft’s Xbox division and Meta’s Oculus virtual reality unit.
In a blog post, Siminoff wrote, “Invention is my true passion. I am constantly looking at how we can adapt to deliver for our neighbors, which is what we’ve always called our customers. This is why I decided to shift my role to Chief Inventor and bring on a new CEO.”
The move comes five years after Amazon took over Ring in a $1 billion deal in 2018. The deal has been beneficial for Amazon to grow its presence in the smart home and home security categories.
Meanwhile, reports in the media have sparked controversy over Ring’s security protocols and the technology’s threats to consumer privacy.
In 2020, Ring said it laid off four employees for peeping into customer video feeds and violating customer privacy after reports from The Intercept and The Information found that Ring staffers in Ukraine were given unrestrained access to videos from Ring cameras around the world.
The company worked on strengthening its security measures after a series of incidents were witnessed where hackers gained unhindered access to a number of users’ cameras. In one instance, hackers were able to watch and communicate with an 8-year old girl. Ring accused the issue on users reusing their passwords.
Ring has also garnered criticism from privacy and civil liberties advocates over a controversial partnership with thousands of police departments in the country. The program enables police and fire departments to access video footage recorded by Ring cameras on request.
Privacy advocates have often questioned that the program, and Ring’s accompanying Neighbors app, have increased the risk of racial profiling and turned residents into informants, while giving police access to footage without a warrant and with few guardrails around how they can use the material.
In 2021, Ring began requiring police to make requests for videos or information public in the Neighbors app.
