When Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates sent out his call-to-action e-mail for Trustworthy Computing (TwC) in January 2001, he told the company's employees that Microsoft must "lead the industry to a whole new level of trustworthiness in computing." This meant leading the industry in four specific areas -- what Microsoft calls the four pillars of TwC: privacy, security, reliability and business integrity.

As Microsoft continues to work toward this goal, an award the company received today demonstrates significant progress toward that first pillar: privacy. The International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP), the world's largest association for individuals in the profession of privacy, selected Microsoft and the U.S. Postal Service to receive the 2004 HP Privacy Innovation Awards. Co-sponsored by the IAPP and HP, the awards are given to one commercial organization and one government or not-for-profit organization a year, each of which, according to organizers, has shown "exemplary support for privacy issues and leadership integrating effective privacy protection throughout the entire organization's business process."

The IAPP judges based on the level of innovation, thought leadership and their success integrating privacy programs into their overall business strategy.

PressPass caught up with Peter Cullen, Microsoft's chief privacy strategist, to learn how Microsoft has embraced privacy and, in the process, changed the way it does business.