With more than a billion users from around the world sharing some of the most personal information about their lives on its site, Facebook needed expertise in privacy policy in 2011. It had recently settled privacy charges with the FTC, and needed policy guidance in Washington. So when it came time for the company to hire a new Chief Privacy Officer for Policy, it tapped Erin Egan, the DC-based co-chair of Covington & Burling’s global privacy and data security practice. After Egan’s interview at the company’s HQ in Menlo Park, COO Cheryl Sandberg mailed her the iconic poster from Facebook’s office: “What would you do if you weren’t afraid?” She has been running Facebook’s DC Privacy Policy shop ever since.
