Stanford CIS

Gail Kent

Gail Kent leads a policy team responsible for Facebook Messenger. Together they cover issues from encryption to connectivity. Previous to this she was Facebook’s Law Enforcement and Surveillance lead, building on a 17 year career in the UK's National Crime Agency. She joined UK law enforcement after reading Social and Political Science at Cambridge University and throughout her law enforcement career worked on organised crime investigations and strategy, specialising in international co-operation and tools to assist law enforcement in tackling crimes to which the Internet adds a new dimension. She worked extensively with Europol and Interpol, and other international partners. In 2013 she was awarded a Fulbright Police Research Scholarship, taking up a visiting position at the Center for Internet and Society at Stanford Law School , where she worked on solving the so-called "MLAT problem" - the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties which govern the sharing of information between law enforcement and internet companies in different jurisdictions. She is also an associate of Oxford University's Martin School, advising on cybecrime capacity building in developing countries.