The Federal Trade Commission has named Ashkan Soltani, a consumer privacy consultant and researcher, to be its next chief technologist.

Soltani was a contributor to the Washington Post's Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of the National Security Agency based on documents leaked by Edward Snowden. He has worked as an investigative reporter for the Post and the Wall Street Journal and as a researcher at the New York Times.

He previously served as a technical expert for the FTC and worked at the commission between 2010 and 2011 as a staff technologist. Soltani succeeds Dr. Latanya Sweeney, who is returning to Harvard University, where she founded Harvard’s Data Privacy Lab.

In a story in today’s Washington Post, Soltani takes Apple to task for its use of location data in its Spotlight search feature in Apple’s latest operating system.

His appointment signals the FTC will continue to put privacy and security issues at the top of its enforcement priorities.

“Technology and online and mobile platforms are continuing to evolve at a rapid pace and will remain a key focus for the FTC as more and more consumers adopt mobile devices and tablets,” said FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez in a statement.