Maintaining the highest standards of global corporate governance is essential to our growth worldwide, especially in emerging markets. Our disciplined approach shapes decisions in public policy, corporate governance, governance of corporate responsibility, and privacy/security.
Beginning in the late 1960s and early 1970s, IBM was the first company to ever adopt a global, company-wide privacy policy.
In 1997, IBM used the strength of its purchasing power to announce that it would only buy online ads from sites posting privacy policies, a move which helped increase the use of privacy policies on more than 95 percent of online sites in the next few years.
In 2005, IBM was the first company worldwide to take positions in support of genetic privacy and against genetic discrimination. In addition, the company played a major role in advocating for a federal genetic nondiscrimination law, and testified in favor of a bill in 2007. Congress ultimately passed the Genetics Information Nondiscrimination Act in 2008.
Awards
IBM was rated the most trusted business-to-business company in the United States in 2007 and 2008 by the Ponemon Institute and TRUSTe.
IBM’s security and Privacy Consulting practice named one of the best privacy advisors in the 2008 Computerworld survey.
- An IBM-led research consortium on privacy and identity management was recognized with the Innovation Award from the International Association of Privacy Professionals in 2008.