Google’s director of privacy to retire

“During her 10 years at Google, Alma has done so much to improve our products and protect our users,” a Google spokesman said in a statement. “The privacy and security teams, and everyone else at Google, will continue this hard work to ensure that our users’ data is kept safe and secure.”

Forbes first reported the news about Whitten’s departure.

You steps into Whitten’s role as the search giant recently agreed to pay $7 million to settle charges with 38 states for collecting data from unprotected Wi-Fi networks without permission. He will likely interface with lawmakers during their continued scrutiny of Web companies’ privacy practices and how well they protect user data.