Community Engagement

The challenge of safeguarding privacy in a globally connected world is considerable, and no company, industry or sector can achieve this alone. Microsoft is working with public- and private-sector partners to establish standards for helping people and organizations to better manage and protect personal information. We are also working in tandem with customers, industry leaders, civil society and governments to help develop flexible and harmonized regulatory privacy frameworks around the world.

Policy development

In 2006, Microsoft publicly advocated comprehensive U.S. federal privacy legislation. Since that time, we have been involved in direct partnership with governments and other industry players to help develop constructive and useful privacy frameworks around the world. For instance, as part of the Business Forum for Consumer Privacy (BFCP), we are working cooperatively with others to focus on fostering innovation in consumer privacy governance. BFCP is comprised of a group of business privacy leaders and advisors dedicated to the development of business governance concepts that are more user-friendly, implementable across technologies and business models, foster accountability, allow market flexibility, and provide greater protections against physical, financial and social harms associated with the mismanagement of information.

Education and outreach

Microsoft privacy technologies work best when customers have the knowledge and guidance they need to use them most effectively. We aim to improve our customers' roles and partnership experiences through education and outreach to others.

Our Online Safety Web site provides free educational materials to help individuals discover and better manage risks to their computers and privacy.

Celebrated in the United States, Europe, and Canada, Data Privacy/Data Protection Day is dedicated to informing and educating people about current privacy issues.

Collaboration

Microsoft works with a wide range of organizations to help strengthen common privacy objectives through several capacities.

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Community Blogs


	APEC Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) is a forum for facilitating economic growth, cooperation, trade and investment in the Asia-Pacific region. For the past five years, Microsoft has been very active in the APEC Data Privacy Subgroup and the Electronic Commerce Steering Group and strongly supports the APEC Privacy Framework. More recently, Microsoft has supported the APEC Data Privacy Pathfinder project. Microsoft believes that APEC plays a critical role in the Asia Pacific region in promoting a policy framework to ensure the continued free flow of personal data across borders while respecting personal data privacy and security.
	NAI The Network Advertising Initiative (NAI) is a cooperative of online marketing and analytics companies committed to building consumer awareness and establishing responsible business and data management practices and standards. Through the NAI, Microsoft has worked in conjunction with industry leaders, regulatory agencies, federal and state legislators to address the business dimension of the privacy debate through the development of actionable self-regulatory standards that establish and reward responsible marketing behavior.
	IAPP The International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) is the world's leading association of privacy and security professionals. With more than 6,000 individual and corporate members, the IAPP defines and supports privacy professionals by providing a forum for interaction, education, and discussion across industries. Microsoft is both a member of IAPP and is a co-founder of the IAPP Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP) certification. So too, Microsoft is a major sponsor of IAPP’s Annual Privacy Summit, which brings international policymakers and industry leaders together to foster important dialogues around major privacy issues.
	TRUSTe Microsoft and MSN are licensees of TRUSTe,a branded online privacy seal program that certifies eligible web sites and holds these web sites to a baseline privacy standard.
	The Centre for Information Policy Leadership (CIPL) Microsoft is a member of the Centre for Information Policy Leadership (CIPL), which develops initiatives to encourage responsible information governance in today's digital society. Through collaboration with industry leaders, consumer organizations and government representatives, the Centre provides leadership in developing policy to help ensure privacy and information security while balancing economic and societal needs and interests in today’s global information age. Content developed in Centre projects is available to the public, and used to educate policymakers across the globe. Privacy professionals at member companies use the Centre's content and processes to resolve issues facing their organizations. The Centre is member driven and member supported, and frequently engages data protection authorities and consumer privacy organizations in its work to foster thoughtful, balanced solutions.