Facebook appoints director of privacy

Facebook, which has been dogged by complaints over privacy, announced Tuesday that it has named a director of privacy at the social network.

Erin Egan, a privacy and data security lawyer with the firm of Covington & Burling, will join Facebook in mid-October, the Palo Alto, California-based company said in a statement.

Facebook said Egan has extensive experience in legislative and regulatory efforts to address privacy, data security, spam, spyware, identity theft and other consumer protection issues.

She will be based in Washington.

Facebook also announced that Louisa Terrell, who has been serving as a special assistant for legislative affairs to President Barack Obama, will be joining Facebook in October as director of public policy.

Terrell will also join Facebook's Washington office.

In addition, Facebook said it had hired Erika Mann, a former member of the European parliament from Germany, will head a new Brussels office for Facebook and serve as lead spokesperson with EU institutions.

Facebook is the world's most popular social network with more than 750 million users.

(c) 2011 AFP