Ex-Twitter privacy chief takes job at social media app BeReal

Executives from AT&T, Amazon, Google, Apple and Twitter testify about safeguards for consumer data privacy in Washington
Damian Kieran, global data protection officer and associate legal director at Twitter Inc., testifies before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee on safeguards for consumer data privacy in Washington, U.S., September 26, 2018. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts

(Reuters) - Damien Kieran, who resigned as Twitter (TWTR.MX) Inc's chief privacy officer in November after Elon Musk took over the social media giant, has joined photo sharing app-maker BeReal as its top lawyer.

Kieran started Monday as general counsel at Paris-based BeReal, he said in posts on LinkedIn and Twitter. "The product, the people, and the potential lured me in," he wrote on LinkedIn.

Kieran and BeReal, whose popular social media app prompts users to share a daily photo, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

In addition to his role as chief privacy officer, Kieran was also vice president and deputy general counsel at Twitter before leaving in November, according to his LinkedIn account.

He resigned along with other Twitter executives, including chief information security officer Lea Kissner and chief compliance officer Marianne Fogarty, two weeks after Musk completed his $44 billion acquisition and became CEO.

Musk fired Twitter's legal affairs and policy chief Vijaya Gadde in October. Other top lawyers, including deputy general counsel James Baker, have also been fired or resigned.

Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday about its current legal staffing, and it is unclear how many lawyers remain. Several in-house lawyers have taken on new roles since November, according to LinkedIn updates.

Kieran joined Twitter in 2016. He previously worked as an associate at law firms Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison and Weil Gotshal & Manges and in the legal department at Alphabet Inc's Google, according to his LinkedIn account.

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Sara Merken reports on privacy and data security, as well as the business of law, including legal innovation and key players in the legal services industry. Reach her at sara.merken@thomsonreuters.com