Varney named to Obama team

A leading privacy attorney and founder of the Online Privacy Alliance has been named to Barack Obama's transition team. Christine Varney will serve as personnel counsel during the three-month transition. Varney has headed the Internet practice group at international law firm Hogan & Hartson for the last decade. Before that, she served as a federal trade commissioner, where she led efforts to examine privacy issues in the Information Age. Her work at the FTC resulted in congressional and agency hearings, proposed industry standards and increased government enforcement of laws protecting privacy.