Facebook nominates privacy chief after $5 billion settlement with FTC

Facebook on Wednesday nominated a chief privacy officer to oversee its privacy program following its $5 billion settlement with the Federal Trade Commission.

The company said it nominated longtime Facebook executive Michel Protti for the position. In that role, Protti will lead Facebook’s privacy program and be required to “independently submit to the FTC quarterly certifications that the company is in compliance with the privacy program.”

Part of the FTC agreement required that Facebook institute an independent privacy committee and put compliance officers in place.

“Any false certification will subject them to individual civil and criminal penalties,” the FTC said in Wednesday’s settlement announcement.

Protti’s nomination will have to be approved by Facebook’s new privacy committee, as required by the FTC agreement, and only the committee can remove him. The committee will be stood up within 120 days, a Facebook spokesperson told CNBC. The spokesperson declined to say if there will be other compliance officers besides Protti.

Protti was previously Facebook’s vice president of product marketing on partnerships. He’s been with the company since December 2013, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Flanking Protti will be Delfina Eberly, who will lead privacy programs audit and oversight, and Vladimir Fedorov, who will lead privacy review across Facebook’s product and engineering teams. Eberly was previously vice president of infrastructure while Fedorov was vice president of engineering.

WATCH: Here’s how to see which apps have access to your Facebook data — and cut them off