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Posted on 01-12-2011

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Following Facebook’s most recent privacy fiasco, which had the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) make some very strict guidelines for the future, the social networking giant has appointed two new Chief Privacy Officers.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that two of its recently-joined employees will now be heading the company’s team for all things privacy – with Erin Egan being made the Chief Privacy Office (Policy), and Michael Richter the Chief Privacy Officer (Products).

According to Zuckerberg, the privacy officers will ensure that feedback from both lawmakers and users will be taken into account while developing Facebook and its features. Commenting on how the new move would help the company, Zuckerberg said:

“These two positions will further strengthen the processes that ensure that privacy control is built into our products and policies. The announcement also formalises our commitment to providing you with control over your privacy and sharing -- and it also provides protection to ensure that your information is only shared in the way you intend.”

The recent guidelines mandated by the FTC included product, process and policy changes. The company will also submit to a biannual independent audit of its privacy practices to ensure it is following through on the commitments it made. For more details about the ruling, refer to our previous coverage, as well as Zuckerberg's blog post.

The chairman of the FTC, Jon Leibowitz, commented on the future of the Facebook’s privacy struggle:

“Facebook is obligated to keep the promises about privacy that it makes to its hundreds of millions of users. Facebook's innovation does not have to come at the expense of consumer privacy. The FTC action will ensure it will not.”