Report: Facebook privacy chief eyes Calif. AG office

Facebook's chief privacy officer is expected to declare his candidacy soon for attorney general of California, according to a report on TechCrunch.

Chris Kelly, who will run in the 2010 general election as a Democrat, is expected to leave the social-networking site in June to focus on his campaign, according to the report.

For Kelly, who has led the company's negotiations with state attorneys general on issues such as privacy, it will mean a sort of a change of sides. In May, Kelly negotiated an agreement with the attorneys general of 49 states and the District of Columbia to develop age verification technology.

Kelly first began publicly dealing with state attorneys general in October 2007. Andrew Cuomo, the New York state attorney general, subpoenaed Facebook after his office conducted an undercover investigation that he said yielded a slow response from the social network to complaints of harassment and inappropriate conduct.

Later that month, Facebook reached an accord with Cuomo's office, in which Kelly admitted that Facebook had "slipped a little bit" in its vigilance toward user privacy.

Kelly has a law degree from Harvard, and has worked at international law firm Baker & Mckenzie and technology law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati.

Other declared candidates for the attorney general's office include San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris, Torrance Assemblyman Ted Lieu, and Pittsburg Assemblyman Gerald Canciamilla.