The New York Times recently published two stories, in rapid succession, that focused on allegations that the Facebook Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) had strongly disagreed with management’s approach to investigating and disclosing third-party harvesting concerns.
Indeed, one of the two Times stories was entitled “The End for Facebook’s Security Evangelist”. It was a presumably flattering summary of the CISO’s tendency to aggressively pursue privacy concerns, often at the risk of creating friction with other senior corporate executives. A related Times article focused on allegations that the Facebook legal and security functions were at odds on privacy security matters. It quoted a former Facebook privacy executive to the effect that “[T]he people whose job is to protect the user always are fighting an uphill battle against the people whose job is to make money for the company.”
