Intel Rallies Thought Leaders to Rethink Data Privacy to Spur Innovation

Intel Corporation convened thought leaders in technology, healthcare, education and smart cities industries to encourage action on data privacy issues. Malcolm Harkins, vice president and chief security and privacy officer for Intel, said that the potential to unlock revolutionary discoveries is at stake, and called on the industry to be more transparent and accountable when collecting and using consumer data.

During his keynote, Harkins highlighted the fact that we are experiencing the greatest era for innovation opportunity in history, largely as a result of increased computing, storage, and analytics capabilities associated with big data, but this also creates significant uncertainty and concern among people.

He emphasized the importance of rethinking privacy to move beyond a "check-the-box" compliance obligation driven by legal to a business function driving innovation that is staffed for privacy engineering, architecture, and operations that will lead to greater trust among consumers.

"Innovation will be hindered due to an underlying mistrust among people about what businesses know about them and how they're using that information," said Harkins.

"If we want to spur innovation and realize the true potential of big data to solve the world's greatest challenges, technology leaders and organizations have to assume responsibility for establishing transparent business practices, designing privacy-enhancing technologies, and encouraging legislation that helps instill trust."