Last week turned into a seriously busy week as the Council of Europe and the European Commission celebrated the 4th Data Protection Day. We (Microsoft) were there too,   because we are deeply committed to engage on this important issue.

 
Sophie in’t Veld MEP, Commissioner Reding, Bruno Waterfield (moderator) Daily Telegraph, Peter Hustinx, EDPS, Alexander Alvaro MEP

Data Protection Day has also become a big export; with the US hosting  Data Privacy Day. We participated in a number of events across the Atlantic, as well as in Brussels,  including a conference at the VUB, the Pecha Kucha event, a lunch debate and last but not least the THINK PRIVACY conference in the European Parliament.
The sentiment that stayed in my mind after these four days of privacy talk was expressed by Ambassador Froysnes, Council of Europe, in his opening speech of the THINK PRIVACY event that took place in the European Parliament (co-hosted by Sophie in’t Veld MEP and Alexander Alvaro MEP and organized by Microsoft together with our partners EUN, Coface, VUB, Telefonica and Channel 4): “Data protection is moving higher on the international agenda each time we celebrate the Data Protection Day”.
 
The political vision of Commissioner Reding put forth in her keynote speech was confirming this statement and we will likely see an even more prominent Data Protection Day in 2011. Here at Microsoft we will continue to push for further awareness- raising  on this important political debate, as well as the technology innovation path to improve consumer and citizen privacy.
 
To recap, Microsoft has recently announced its search retention period to be cut to a third, six months to be precise, and we have further invested in awareness raising activities by launching a study on online reputation. We hope that this study - galvanized by the Data Protection Day  - will help to understand how important it is to manage the digital footprint one leaves with each click. , To this end, our latest version of Internet Explorer 8, now has a range of privacy enhancing technologies, like our InPrivate Browsing and Filtering features to empower users to more effectively manage their privacy online.
 
And not to forget …. The winners of the THINK PRIVACY competition are LEGO stop motion from Denmark (3); No escape from Romania (2); and Are YOU in control from Romania (1).
 
www.dataprotectionday.eu