Exploring solutions to today’s privacy challenges at IAPP Global Privacy Summit 2015

As technology becomes more personal, ubiquitous and cloud-based, privacy has become an increasing concern for customers worldwide. In fact, in recent research Microsoft conducted, respondents in 11 out of 12 countries said that technology’s effect on privacy was mostly negative. At this week’s International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) Global Privacy Summit, we will talk with experts from around the world about changing the status quo on privacy challenges to make 2015 a year for solutions. At Microsoft, we believe in putting people in control of their information by building privacy into our policies, practices and products. Where the law doesn’t go far enough to protect privacy, we’re advocating for reforms and bringing legal challenges.

We’re bringing our perspectives on privacy solutions to a broad range of topics at the summit:

  • U.S. federal privacy legislation: We’ll discuss the practical effect of the proposed legislation and the relationship between the proposed legislation and privacy laws in other parts of the world.
  • Student privacy: Microsoft was one of the first in the industry to adopt to Student Privacy Pledge. We’ll discuss regulating student privacy and what lessons that can be applied to enable the benefits of technology while addressing concerns raised by big data.
  • Measuring and proving privacy’s business value: We’ll share our ideas on how organizations can measure privacy compliance and how it contributes to the bottom line.
  • Artificial intelligence and privacy: Research investigates how to balance the costs and benefits of sharing big data as part of machine learning, exploring advances in the ability to anonymize information to protect privacy for individuals.

We’ll also be listening to what others have to say. One of the panels we’ll be following includes experts who will discuss law enforcement warrants in an era of cloud computing – an issue at the center of a case between Microsoft and the U.S. government that has significant implications for the global economy, diplomatic relations and privacy rights.

Global privacy solutions will not advance without expert privacy professionals engaging in the field. Microsoft has long been a supporter of the privacy profession as a means to advance responsible privacy practice. We have been the platinum sponsor of the Global Privacy Summit for more than a decade and we were one of the founding sponsors of the IAPP privacy certification. We are excited to once again see this community come together and engage in what we expect will be a particularly fascinating discussion this year.

We look forward to sharing our ideas and hearing yours. Please join the conversation with us on Twitter to share your perspectives; I’ll be sharing observations @BrendonLynch and our team will be tweeting from @MSFTprivacy. We all benefit from coming together to share ideas on how we can strengthen privacy for the future.

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