Twitter exec joining White House tech office

Twitter exec Nicole Wong joining White House tech office to focus on privacy, Internet policy

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The White House says Twitter executive Nicole Wong is joining the Obama administration as the deputy U.S. chief technology officer.

Wong was Twitter's legal director for products. She has also been a vice president at Google.

Rick Weiss is spokesman for the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy. He says Wong's portfolio will include the Internet, technology and privacy. He says she has extensive expertise on those topics and has a reputation for fairness.

As a Google attorney, Wong testified before Congress about how the Internet company protects users' privacy.

Internet privacy has become a major issue for the White House following revelations about the government's massive collection of data from phone and Internet companies.