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Facebook Privacy Debacle an Issue in California Attorney General Race

by Terrence O'Brien on May 26, 2010 at 07:20 AM

Chris Kelly's Campaign Site
The dust-up over Facebook privacy has entered the political sphere, and we're not talking about the recent push for the FTC to investigate the company. The social network's former privacy chief, Chris Kelly, is seeking the office of California Attorney General, and his role in shaping policy at the company has become a point of contention during the Democratic primary.

Kamala Harris, the San Francisco District Attorney and current leader in the polls, issued a statement last Thursday clearly broadcasting her intention to make Kelly's position at Facebook a campaign issue. The statement demanded that Kelly "come clean" with voters regarding his role at Facebook and asked pointedly, "If Kelly couldn't stand up to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on behalf of Facebook users, how on earth can Californians trust Kelly to go to bat on their behalf as attorney general?"

A spokesperson for Kelly told the Wall Street Journal that the candidate had effectively left Facebook before the recent privacy debacle took shape. Though he only tendered his resignation in March, Kelly began a leave of absence in August.

Kelly is trailing in the polls by a wide margin, currently sitting in third with 11-percent of voters, to Harris's pack-leading 22-percent. Considering the uproar over recent bugs that exposed private information and the increasingly creepy Facebook business model, Harris may have struck a subject that could sink Kelly's public office aspirations for good. [From: Wall Street Journal]

Tags: california, ChrisKelly, election, facebook, government, KamalaHarris, politics, privacy, top

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