INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Mozilla has hired Alan Davidson, a former Commerce Dept
digital director, as its new global policy chief.
The Firefox browser maker said Tuesday that the former civil servant, who oversaw internet
policy and cybersecurity towards the end of Obama presidential tenure, will return Mozilla in the new role after last year serving as its
Davidson also served as Google policy chief amid an uproar in 2011 about the search giant location tracking, and later as director of New
America Open Technology Institute.
In his new role, Davidson will be responsible for Mozilla policy, trust and security work, including
compliance, security and investigations
Mozilla said that will include the company ongoing efforts to defend the open web, such as web standards, net neutrality and pushing for
user privacy.
Davidson, who said he was ''thrilled& to join the browser giant, will report to Mozilla chief operating officer, Denelle
Dixon.
At a time when people are questioning the impact of technology on their lives and looking for leadership from organizations like
Mozilla, Alan will add considerable capacity to our public policy, trust and security efforts, drawing from his extensive professional
history working to advance a free and open digital economy,& said Dixon.
The browser maker has aggressively pushed for opening data and
doubling down on privacy features in recent years.
Last week, Mozilla published its Firefox user data in an effort to be more transparent
with its telemetry data collection
And, the company recently announced it will soon block trackers that follow users across the web for, among other things, targeted
