IBM forges ahead with data privacy

IBM has set up an institute and a management council to focus on the development of privacy technology.

The Privacy Institute has been created under Big Blue's research arm to develop privacy and data protection capabilities.

It will receive guidance from an international External Advisory Board that includes experts from Japan's NTT Data, AT&T Labs-Research, Australia's privacy commissioner and Germany's Independent Centre for Privacy Protection.

The Institute will focus on developing technologies in the areas of e-commerce, knowledge management and intrusion detection.

A specific area of research will develop software that enables enterprises to manage, use and distribute personal data according to their privacy policies and their customers' preferences.

Research will take place at IBM's eight globally-based labs and, like other IBM research initiatives, will sponsor a series of workshops and outreach efforts.

The second initiative, the Privacy Management Council, which comprises participants from the public and private sectors, will focus on finance, healthcare, government, travel and other industry sectors.

Founding members of the Council include officials from Deloitte & Touche, Fidelity Investments, the US Department of Commerce, Novant Health and Telus.

The Council will aim to develop next-generation Tivoli software to manage privacy across the extended enterprise, according to IBM.

Harriet Pearson, chief privacy officer at Big Blue, said: "We are clearly in a time where deliberation over maintaining the balance between privacy and security is going to sharply intensify in many aspects of society."

Pearson, who will chair the Council, also said that the collaboration between the Institute and the Council could help address emerging privacy challenges, as the two initiatives will accelerate new innovations in privacy-enabling technologies from the lab to the marketplace.