Facebook European privacy head named peer

Facebook's European head of privacy is now a Lord.

Richard Allan, director of European policy for the social networking outfit, is among the new Liberal Democrat peers, the BBC reports. The former MP joined Facebook in June 2009, after serving as European government affairs director for Cisco, and his name has become particularly familiar in recent weeks as Facebook battled against ever-growing criticism of its approach to privacy.

Following this week's introduction of simplified Facebook privacy controls by CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Allan told Europe there was "no reason" to leave the social networking site. But in other respects, he's rather trustworthy. Allan was an MP when the UK ID cards act was passed, and he was among those who voted strongly against it.

Allan was elected as Member of Parliament for Sheffield Hallam in 1997 and he was re-elected in 2001. He gave up his seat in 2005. ®