Facebook Privacy Czar Wants to Be Attorney General?

By Matthew Belloni  

TechCrunch reports today that Facebook chief privacy officer Scott Kelly is planning to quit his post to run for Attorney General of California. That's interesting news for a couple reasons.

First, it puts Facebook in a bit of a bind, because Kelly (a former lawyer for Wilson Sonsini and Baker & McKenzie, as well as an education advisor to President Clinton) has been negotiating with attorneys general from a bunch of states over Facebook's commitment to various privacy issues; everything from its willingness to share private information with third parties to it becoming a forum for hate groups. It would need to replace him fast.

Second, it could put Facebook's privacy policies in the center of a major statewide political debate. If he's indeed a candidate, Kelly would face off against other declared contenders, including San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris, Torrence assemblyman Ted Liu and Pittsburg assemblyman Gerald Canciamilla. They would likely point out that Facebook hasn't had the best record on privacy, most notably when its Beacon program ended up sharing far more information that users anticipated.

Maybe voters wouldn't care. Or maybe, with everyone's lives increasingly being lived online, Kelly's candidacy will lead to an thoughtful debate about the expectations of privacy in the digital age. Oh wait, we're talking politics.