Gawker: valleywag, chris kelly

Someone Stop Facebook's Creepy Predators, Facebook Executive Implores

Ryan Tate — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 16:53:43 EST

By day, Chris Kelly extols the virtues of Facebook, where he serves as chief privacy officer. By night, as candidate for California attorney general, Kelly warns of Facebook's "online predators," and says government must "keep people safe" Neat trick.

As part of his 2010 AG bid, Kelly emailed prospective supporters (see below), touting legislation that makes sex offenders register their social network identities. A similar law in New York recently revealed 2,782 sex offenders were using Facebook, some under multiple screen names. Democrat Kelly wants to uncover similar Facebook users out West, and asks people to email their legislators a message stating, "I urge you to pass e-STOP here in California to keep people safe from online predators."

Which is all well and good, but kind of begs the question: Since California already has a public sex offenders database, couldn't Facebook simply collect enough information from users to cross-reference that list? And if it doesn't do so, for privacy reasons, wouldn't executives like, say, the chief privacy officer be answerable for that apparently regrettable trade off between safety and revenue growth? Just asking!

Email from Kelly (click to enlarge):

Email Kelly suggests his supporters send (excerpt):

(Top pic: Kelly, by Esther Dyson)

Facebook's Privacy Czar Leaves to Run for California A.G.

Owen Thomas — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 16:21:26 EDT

Chris Kelly, Facebook's chief privacy officer, has made official long-rumored plans to run for California's attorney general. He's just the latest Silicon Valley figure to enter politics.

Meg Whitman, the former eBay CEO and noted gay-marriage opponent, is vying to be the Republican candidate for governor in California's 2010 election. She might well face one of her former lieutenants, Steve Westly, who left eBay to run for state controller, a post he won in 2002; he previously ran as a Democratic candidate for governor in 2006, but lost in the primary.

Or she might contend with Gavin Newsom, the tech-friendly mayor of San Francisco, who has courted the chiefs of Google, Twitter, and Facebook in launching his run. (Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin ferried guests to Newsom's wedding last year in their private jet.)

It's a turnabout for Northern California, which has long been noted for funding campaigns, not launching them. Will the nerd candidates play in California's conservative Central Valley, or glitzy Hollywood? Kelly has one advantage: He knows all about building a social network.

To save "the children," Facebook tries press releases

Melissa Gira Grant — Thu, 08 May 2008 15:00:00 EDT

At the direction of 49 state attorneys general, Facebook has adopted even more provisions to restrict interactions between adults and teenagers. Along the changes are automatic reviews of any age-changes made to underage user profiles, and the deletion of links to "pornographic materials." Even though most young people approached for sex by adults on social networks are already onto their date-of-birth deception, Chief Privacy Officer Chris Kelly's pledge to make Facebook safer for The Children makes for a good press op. Will the new rules make any difference, and how are they going to be implemented? We've asked Facebook how many engineers report to Kelly, but until they get back to us, it's safe to guess exactly none.

Facebook now allows users to delete their...

Nicholas Carlson — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 18:20:40 EST

Facebook now allows users to delete their data entirely from the site when they quit. Even from Facebook's internal servers, according to Chris Kelly, Facebook's chief privacy officer. But the dearly departed shall forever remain in our memories. [New York Times]

Facebook privacy mouthpiece dodges tough questions with conviction

Nicholas Carlson — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 13:00:58 EST

Ready for details on what Facebook is doing to prevent its employees from abusing access to user information? Too bad. All that Facebook blogger Nick O'Neill got out of Chris Kelly, chief privacy mouthpiece for Facebook, was that, "Facebook takes privacy very seriously." O'Neill buys it, citing Kelly's conviction. We don't. We already know it's in Facebook's interest to tell press it takes privacy seriously. And we're still hearing too many sources tell us Facebook employees abuse their privileges. And there's one case in particular where Facebook's lack of action speaks louder than Kelly's words.

Alleged profile manipulator Jordan Moncharmont apparently still has a job there. If he's been cleared by an internal investigation, fine, but tell us.

Yahoo and Facebook execs chat it up

Nick Douglas — Mon, 22 May 2006 18:41:51 EDT

Futurist Esther Dyson catches Yahoo senior veep Toby Coppel chatting with Facebook veep and general counsel Chris Kelly. "What are they cooking up now," she asks. Oh Esther, you mischevious darling, why must you tease us so?

Let's see — Toby's holding the water, while Chris seems to be holding a plastic cup — beer or iced tea? Therein lies the secret, folks. Beer means somebody's re-thinking that $2 billion figure.

Note to Esther: Bounce flash or ambient lighting will make those indoor shots more flattering. No one wants to make Toby Coppel look pasty.

what are they cooking up now? [Esther Dyson on Flickr]