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The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has appointed former DoubleClick executive Nuala O'Conner Kelly as its new privacy officer, in charge of making sure that the technologies used by the department do not erode citizens' privacy.

The appointment was announced Wednesday by Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge, following some speculation by privacy advocates as to when the required post would be filled.

The Homeland Security Department was created last year in response to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and has been armed with a wide variety of technologies aimed at detecting and preventing terrorist activities.

According to Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, the appointment of a privacy officer is required by law, and some privacy advocates were concerned that the post had not yet been filled.

Privacy Protections

The new department has already taken on initiatives seen as privacy threats by civil libertarians, such as passenger profiling systems and electronic surveillance powers under the Homeland Security Act.

The role of a privacy officer is to assure that the technologies used by the department do not erode privacy protections.

O'Conner Kelly previously held the post of privacy officer at the U.S. Department of Commerce and was vice president of data protection and chief privacy officer at online marketing company DoubleClick.

Rotenberg said that his group believes O'Conner Kelly's first steps should be to address an expanded passenger profiling proposal, dubbed CAPPS II, ensure that the expanded electronic surveillance provisions in the Homeland Security Act have a sunset clause, and closely examine whether commercial sector databases should be accessed by the federal government.

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