Will the White House Soon Have A Chief Privacy Officer or Not?

The privacy world got pretty excited yesterday when news broke from

that the White House had chosen Twitter Legal Director Nicole Wong as “the White House’s first chief privacy officer.”

Certainly, that would be excellent validation of the privacy profession and an indication that the White House was taking privacy matters very seriously, indeed.

However, as we here at

began to ask our members and industry authorities for reaction to the announcement, two independent sources with knowledge of the situation told us the

story was “inaccurate.”

Neither would say if the inaccuracy had to do with Wong or simply with the title that

had reported she would be given.

Today, in his

, Peter Delevett referred to Wong as “in the running to be named a top Obama administration advisor on privacy issues.”

He referred to the

article as well and said he had sources giving him information similar to that given to us here at the

:

“

initially reported Tuesday that Wong would be named President Barack Obama's chief privacy officer,” Delevett wrote, “which would have been a first for any presidential administration. But a source familiar with the situation said the White House is in discussions with several people about the position, which would be a senior adviser to Obama's chief technology officer.”

has revised its story as well today, now saying “the new position will be a senior adviser to the chief technology officer, currently

, and will focus on Internet and privacy policy.” However, the story’s lead and title still refers to a “chief privacy officer.”

continues to follow this story.