| International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) has named Harriet Pearson as its first chief privacy officer in a bid to strengthen the company’s role in consumer privacy protection.
The Armonk, N.Y.-based company said that Pearson will coordinate privacy aspects of programs such as research and development, marketing, sales, IBM’s Web strategy, and technology and policy efforts.
She will also coordinate the development of IBM technology and services offerings for privacy and will ensure that the company complies with laws and standards as consumer privacy guidelines evolve.
The move comes amid growing concerns that electronic commerce will fail to get off the ground because consumers have yet to feel safe about giving out personal data online.
A recent report by the University of California at Los Angeles said that almost two-thirds of U.S. Internet users and more than three-quarters of non-users say going online is a threat to privacy. | 