The far-reaching effects of the Facebook privacy-related fracas recently became evident from the fact that the issue is affecting the political aspirations of the social network’s ex-chief of privacy, Chris Kelly, who is in the running for the office of the California attorney general.

Facebook is already being widely criticized for its contentious privacy policies, especially its recently-introduced changes that allow the sharing of users’ personal information with third party sites.

The changes have not only enraged the nearly 500 million users of the social network, but has also invited the ire of privacy advocates and US lawmakers, who are seeking a scrutiny of the company’s closely-held practices by the Federal Trade Commission.

Meanwhile, though Chris Kelly’s opponents in the Democratic primary had, by and large, avoided bringing up the Facebook privacy issue in the political campaign, a last week volley from the San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris revealed that the hullabaloo associated with Kelly former’s employer will be politically exploited.

Asking Kelly to “come clean with voters” about his role in framing Facebook’s controversial privacy policies, the Harris campaign raised questions like: “Was Kelly simply a fox guarding the hen house at Facebook? If Kelly couldn't stand up to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on behalf of Facebook users, how on earth can Californians trust Kelly to go to bat on their behalf as attorney general?”