Portfolio / Privacy

Global Data Privacy @ Meta

From 2020-2021 as a PM Lead at Meta, I co-led a new "privacy regulatory readiness" team formed to systematically address upcoming global privacy regulation and evolving user expectations. I crafted complex product strategies and programs touching all products (Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, Oculus, WhatsApp) with approvals rising to the Chief Privacy Officer and division heads. Challenges leveraged all of my product management and legal background, including a mix of customer-facing and platform work.

Consent UX Standards

I led an effort to evaluate consent practices across 300+ touchpoints in our products and adopt user experience design standards to address potential dark patterns. As with many of our privacy initiatives, this involved extensive cross-organizational and cross-functional alignment. We socialized and iterated on standards, inventoried and evaluated consent flows against those standards, rolled out education and review process to ensure new consents followed the standards, and drove a multi-year plan to update existing consents.

Data Sharing

I led an effort to ensure we do not "sell data" under CCPA. We evaluated third-party data sharing practices across marketing systems, developer APIs, product experiences, and outside research programs, and drove alignment on product strategies and timelines to meet compliance goals. I also initiated a project to automate additional submission of users' data privacy requests to Meta to our third-party data processors where required by regulation.

Children's Privacy

I led a privacy products team to partner across the company in standing up a 200+ person initiative to make platform and UX changes to address upcoming global youth (typically meaning under 18) regulation such as the Age Appropriate Design Code (UK) and parental consent/control provisions in various countries' privacy laws. I worked with a cross-functional team to triage potential obligations, proposed product strategies and owners, and drove or facilitated roadmaps for Facebook, Instagram, Oculus, and WhatsApp. I contributed to product strategies and driving outcomes across the initiative, including:

• AI/ML-based age modeling
• Stricter default settings
• Parental consent and oversight of minor use of our apps
• What happens what minor users become adults
• Privacy education
• Significant limits on ad targeting and personalization
• Restricting use of minor data across systems
• Ensuring our public youth data commitments are backed by strong platform controls
• Assessment of AI/ML-based recommendation systems

Feedback:

• “His collaborative spirit has made Youth Privacy the most enjoyable project I've been on at Facebook.” –Ads PM
• “Sets a positive culture based on collaboration and praise. Unflappable in the face of complex, contentious topics. Pushes through to solutions that work for all parties. A real joy to work with.” –Instagram PM Manager
• “Has the unusual quality of marrying a great deal of openness with willingness to lead from the front.” –Director, Data Privacy Strategy

Some of our work has been shared publicly:

• AI/ML-based age modeling
  • 2021-03 Improving our work to understand people's real age
  • 2021-07 How do we know someone is old enough to use our apps?
  • 2021-08 Asking People for Their Birthdays
  • 2022-06 How Meta uses AI to better understand people's ages
  • 2022-06 New Ways to Verify Age on Instagram
• Stricter default settings, safety and mental health nudges, and limited recommendations
  • 2021-03 Restricting DMs between teens and adults they don't follow, and prompting teens to be cautious
  • 2021-07 Defaulting under 16s into private accounts
  • 2021-12 "Take a break" reminders, nudge to try different topics, no tagging or mentioning teens who don't follow
  • 2022-06 Updates to "Take a break" reminders and nudges to try different topics 
  • 2022-06 Sensitive Content Control and prompts to update safety and privacy settings
• Removal of ad targeting options
  • 2021-07 Changing how advertisers can reach young people
  • 2023-01 Removal of gender for targeting; youth app engagement data no longer used to personalize ads
  • Ongoing updates in Meta Business Help Center info about advertising to teens
• Parental controls and education
  • Parental consent flows released to signup for Facebook or Instagram in selected regulated countries
  • 2022-03 Family Center and Parental Supervision Tools + Education Hub (alt)
  • 2022-06 Parental supervision tools for Oculus Quest and Instagram
  • 2022-09 Global rollout of supervision tools on Instagram (time spent, limits, notify of reports, see connected accounts)

Selected Deck Screenshots