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Yahoo! privacy! wonk! heads! to! Google+!

She just couldn't keep the news private

Google has poached Yahoo!'s long-serving policy chief to take charge somewhere within the company's nascent social network.

Anne Toth, natch, confirmed she was moving on from the Sunnyvale Purple Palace to the Mountain View Chocolate Factory in a Google+ post on Friday.

She starts work with Google today.

"Come Monday I'll get to spin my own propeller," Toth wrote late last week.

"Excited to be joining Google and the Google+ team next week. Today I'm enjoying my one, solitary day of unemployment. I love everyone who told me to take time off between jobs but I'm too Type-A for my own good."

Google already has a privacy overlord in the shape of Alma Whitten and she'll continue in that role.

In March this year Google agreed with the US Federal Trade Commission to undergo regular privacy audits for the next 20 years after bolting its ill-conceived Buzz social network on to Gmail in early 2010 without first seeking the consent of its users.

It's unsurprising then to see the company rope in a privacy wonk specifically to herd its social network developers around Google+.

Toth's departure from Yahoo! and arrival at Google was greeted with a slow handclap from some critics of her work.

"After her stellar work not delivering HTTPS to Yahoo Mail users, and blocking support of Do Not Track, Yahoo privacy chief heads to Google," said security and privacy researcher Christopher Soghoian. ®

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