Google's first privacy director, Alma Whitten has decided to resign after working for 10 years in the company, reports The Verge.
Whitten was appointed as the Privacy Director for Google in 2010 after working for seven years as a Google engineer. CNet described her job as the "hardest" one which was to defend the company's privacy policies.
Whitten was appointed to fill in the post for privacy director given her background in privacy and security. She took over the position shortly after the two major privacy issues the Web Giant had got itself into: Wi-Spy and Buzz. Google was tied up with the Street View scandal, which captured Wi-Fi data from users' unprotected networks, when Whitten was moved to her new position in the company. The company paid over $7 million as a fine to settle the issue.
Last year, Google had another major run-in with the law which resulted in paying $22.5 million as a fine to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission for making changes to the Safari browser's default security settings.
Whitten also oversaw the merging of 60 privacy policies into one major privacy policy which drew some heat from the U.S. Congress.
A Google spokesperson said in a statement about Whitten's decision to resign from the company; "During her 10 years at Google, Alma has done so much to improve our products and protect our users. The privacy and security teams, and everyone else at Google, will continue this hard work to ensure that our users' data is kept safe and secure."
Whitten will remain in the company for a few more months, Forbes reports, to observe a smooth transition of the position. She will be succeeded by the company's engineering director, Lawrence You, who's worked for the company for eight years.
You will oversee all roles of Whitten going forward but unlikely to work from the London's office. You will be based at the Google's headquarters in Mountain view, California office, close to Google X Lab where all the new inventions take place including the Google Glass and Driverless car, which has already raised some privacy questions.
