The future, according to Mark Zuckerberg, is private.Reeling from two years of bruising scandals, Facebook has begun a major initiative to overhaul the social network so that it's more attuned to the privacy and security implications of a service used by more than 2 billion people.As part of this so-called pivot to privacy,Zuckerberg described the future Facebook as being divided between a public "town square"essentially the familiar public posts on the Facebook Newsfeed todayand a private "living room.""As I think about the future of the internet, I believe a privacy-focused communications platform will become even more important than today's open platforms," Zuckerberg wrote in a blog post in March 2019. "Privacy gives people the freedom to be themselves and connect more naturally, which is why we build social networks."Facebook's private living room will encompass existing products like WhatsApp, as well as new, yet-to-be created services and features. Facebook is already hard at work knitting together its various messaging appsWhatsApp, Instagram DMs, and Messengermaking them end-to-end encrypted, and giving users more control over their data. And new products being developed, including the controversial Libra digital currency, will be built on the foundation of this new privacy framework.It's a major undertakingbut who's behind it' Who are the crucial figures driving it to succeed' Business Insider has identified 16 of the key figures working on the company's "pivot to privacy," from veteran lawyers to key lieutenants of the 34-year-old billionaire CEO, expert technologists, and Facebook critics-turned-insiders.In no particular order, here they all are...SEE ALSO:Instagram's lax privacy practices let a trusted partner track millions of users' physical locations, secretly save their stories, and flout its rulesNOW READ:Mark Zuckerberg's personal security chief accused of sexual harassment and making racist remarks about Priscilla Chan by 2 former staffersDON'T MISS:Facebook says it 'unintentionally uploaded' 1.5 million people's email contacts without their consentErin Egan, a Facebook veteran working as one of its two chief privacy officersErin Egan is an eight-year Facebook veteran serving in one of the social networking giant's most important roles: Chief privacy officer for policy.She oversees the policies and rules that try to protect Facebook's more than 2 billion global users. Before Facebook, she spent 15 years at law firm Covington & Burling, becoming partner and co-chair of its Global Privacy and Data Security practice group.Adam Mosseri, shepherding Facebook's buzziest app into the privacy-first futureAdam Mosseri is a key lieutenant of Mark Zuckerberg entrusted with Facebook's hottest property: Instagram.The creator of the newsfeed is responsible for overseeing the photo-sharing app as it gears up to implement end-to-end encryption on all its messages, the biggest public-facing consequence of Facebook's "pivot to privacy."The 36-year-old exec has been at Facebook since 2008, and studied at New York University.Pedro Canahuati, a technical exec looking at security and privacyAs VP of security and privacy engineering, Pedro Canahuati is helping safeguard Facebook users' datafrom protecting data-centres from hackers to dealing with government demands for users' data.He's also the guy who steps in when there's a crisis: According to a previous report from The Information, he "leads the company's technical response to security and data privacy incidents,"He's been an engineering manager in varying capacities at Facebook since the middle of 2009, and studied computer science at the University of Maryland in the 90s.Ashlie Beringer, privacy-focused legal guruManaging privacy matters on the legal side is Ashlie Beringer, who heads up the Facebook's regulatory, product and privacy legal team.According to her LinkedIn profile, she is "responsible for defense and engagement in all regulatory matters involving the Facebook family of companies worldwide. Oversee team providing full spectrum legal guidance to product, ads and partnership teams in all phases of product and platform development."She joined Facebook in 2013, and before that was a partner at law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.Fidji Simo, driving Facebook's new focus on Groups and StoriesFacebook's "pivot to privacy' isn't just about sticking encryption on everythingthe company is also encouraging ways for users to interact in more intimate, specialized ways.Two key strands in this are Groups, letting friends and strangers congregate around common interest; and Stories, ephemeral photo and video messages that disappear after just 24 hours.As head of Facebook's core app, Fidji Simo is responsible for both of these productsas well as managing the 15-year-old service more broadly and ensuring it doesn't wane in relevancy during the company's next chapter.The former eBay employee joined Facebook in 2011, and was previously VP of video, games, and monetisation.Kevin Bankston, a Facebook critic-turned-employeeKevin Bankston is a Facebook critic-turned-advocate. He previously worked as director of New America's Open Technology Institute, as well as an attorney at digital rights think tank the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).These days, he's a privacy policy director at Facebook, where he focuses on artificial intelligence and emerging technologies.When he joined Facebook in April 2019, he wrote a blog post explaining his decision: I am not going to Facebook despite the fact that I have been a critic. I am going because I have been. Because I believe in the promise of what the company is buildingI can't and won't make excuses for the privacy mistakes that Facebook has made (and that I have criticized) over the past ten years. What I can do is help ensure that they make the right decisions now, not just for the products that exist today, but for all the products that are coming in the future."Stephen Deadman, Facebook's first-ever data protection officerStephen Deadman is Facebook's first ever data protection officer.Appointed in May 2018, the Irish-based exec works to ensure Facebook complies with GDPR in Europe.Prior to taking the role, he said in an interview to The Privacy Advisor that it would involve "monitoring processes and systems, putting in place new processes and documentation for compliance, and working with cross-functional teams to ensure we have the best arrangements to deliver compliance in practice."Before joining Facebook in 2015, he worked for telecoms firm Vodafone as group privacy officer.Michael Protti, Facebook's newly appointed second chief privacy officerIn the aftermath of Facebook's $5 billion settlement with the FTC over privacy issues, the firm was seeking to appoint a chief privacy officer to oversee its products so it turned to Michael Protti, a long-time marketing executive at the company.Formally Facebook's VP of Partnerships Product Marketing, Protti now serves in the newly appointed chief privacy officer, product role, directly reporting to CEO Mark Zuckerberg.Before joining Facebook in late 2013, he worked at Guggenheim Media, Yahoo, and McKinsey.Guy Rosen, Facebook's data cop keeping the platform safe for usersGuy Rosen isn't closely involved in the nuts and bolts of encryption or privacy engineering like some of Facebook's privacy-focused leadersbut he plays a key role in ensuring the platform remains safe and secure for its users.He's the VP of Integrity at Facebook, where he manages teams working to battle issues like fake accounts, propaganda campaigns, account security, and other malign influences on the social network.At Facebook since 2013, he has also previously worked on the Growth team, as well as the company's connectivity efforts.Nate Cardozo, looking after privacy on Facebook's flagship encrypted app, WhatsAppNate Cardozo is another critic of Facebook the social network managed to persuade to come on board to help clean house. He's now working as privacy policy manager for WhatsApp, which in 2016 made history by adding end-to-end encryption to all its messages, in one of the largest consumer roll-outs of encryption ever.Before joining in early 2019, he was the senior information security counsel for the EFF, the non-profit tech advocacy group.Will Cathcart, leading WhatsApp, the company's flagship encrypted appInstagram is cautiously wading into the sometimes-controversial waters of encryptionbut WhatsApp has been there for years.The messaging app has had end-to-end encryption since 2016, and these days it is Will Cathcart who leads it. Another long-running exec who has been at the company for almost a decade, Cathcart took the mantle at WhatsApp in March 2019, after having worked as head of the core Facebook app.As Facebook doubles down on its privacy initiatives, taking learnings from WhatsApp's successes and misteps will be critical.David Marcus, leading Facebook's new digital currency effortsLibra is a wildly ambitious new bet for Facebook: An attempt to build an all-new digital currency.Mired in controversy, it has yet to launchbut when it does, it will represent a dramatic new direction for Facebook's business, far removed from its traditional data-hungry advertising model.The mastermind behind it, who is now responsible for ensuring Libra (and Facebook's related crypto subsidiary, Calibra) doesn't stray from Zuckerberg's privacy focus is David Marcus, a former Paypal exec who also led Messenger for several years.So far, Facebook has stressed the project's commitment to privacy, saying that Calibra won't share user data with the Facebook mothership (except for limited cases like law enforcement).Delfina Eberly, a Facebook veteran overseeing privacy audit and oversightDelfina Eberly is another veteran Facebooker reassigned following the FTC settlement. Previously a vice president of infrastructure tasked with keeping Facebook's systems ticking ever smoothly, she is now taking the lead of privacy programs audit and oversight.She joined the company way back in February 2010, after working as CIO for CriticalPath for five years.Stan Chudnovsky, a steward of an app Facebook hopes to transformMessenger is the third pillar in Facebook's plan to make its messaging apps end-to-end encrypted and interoperable.Making sure that goes off smoothly is Stan Chudnovsky, a former PayPal exec who joined Facebook in 2014 and most recently worked as head of product for Messenger before taking on its top job when exec David Marcus dove headfirst into crypto.Yvonne Cunnane, a crucial lawyer in a crucial marketThe European Union's tough privacy regulation GDPR and its willingness to battle tech giants means that it's a critically sensitive market for Facebook.Helping to navigate that landscape for the company is Yvonne Cunnane, an Irish lawyer who works as associate general counsel and head of data protection under Ashlie Beringer, overseeing data protection issues in Europe.Vladimir Fedorov, reviewing privacy across all Facebook's product and engineering teamsVladimir Fedorov has been at Facebook for more than a decade, rising from a platform engineering in 2009 to vice president of engineering on ads.After the FTC settlement, he was tasked with leading privacy review "across all our product and engineering teams," Facebook's marketing chief Carolyn Everson wrote in a memo to ad agency partners.A Caltech alumni, he also previously worked at Microsoft.The yet-to-be-decided privacy committee on Facebook's boardAs part of Facebook's $5 billion FTC settlement, the company has agreed to establish a Privacy Committee on its board of directors.Its members have yet to be announced, but when it is formally created, they will have ultimate responsibility for overseeing Facebook's privacy efforts and ensuring that users' data is being kept safe and secure.The FTC does not specify how many members the committee must include, but states that each member must be an "independent" director. Facebook currently only has three independent diretors on its board. They are:Peggy Alford, Senior VP of Core Markets at PayPal Holdings, and the former CFO of the Chan Zuckerbergerg Intiative.Kenneth I. Chenault, Chairman of venture capital firm General Catalyst and a former CEO Of American Express.Jeffrey D. Zients, CEO of the Cranemere Group, and a former director of the National Economic Council during the Obama administration.Do you work at Facebook'Contact this reporter via encrypted messaging app Signal at +1 (650) 636-6268 using a non-work phone, email at rprice@businessinsider.com, Telegram or WeChat at robaeprice, or Twitter DM at@robaeprice. (PR pitches by email only, please.)
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