This month's stories focus on one of the privacy profession's bread-and-butter issues: trust. Building, maintaining and nurturing trust is an intrinsic element of any enduring relationship -- and it is no different in the connections a company has with its customers. As executives and thought leaders focus on the importance of trust after an era that saw an erosion of trust related to corporate scandals, experts note that chief privacy officers have a unique role in the equation because privacy is one of the tangible currencies of trust.

Strong privacy protections serve to foster trust and inspire confidence among loyal consumers. A privacy notice is at the center of the intersection in the relationship among customers and companies. Our second story focuses on a comprehensive effort among eight federal agencies to research and draft an effective, clearly worded model privacy notice. In an effort to standardize the way the privacy notice is structured and delivers information, the new notice is designed to give consumers an easy way to compare companies' information practices, which ultimately may serve as a competitive advantage for some organizations.

What do companies have to gain by using the new model privacy notice?

Email me your opinion.

J. Trevor Hughes, CIPP
Executive Director, IAPP