The International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP), among its 20,000 members, honored Peter Swire, an expert on privacy and cyber security and a professor of law, with the 2015 Privacy Leadership Award. Swire was recognized for his continued commitment to the privacy field in tackling emerging privacy and security issues in public policy, academia and industry.
Swire accepted the award at the IAPP’s annual Global Privacy Summit in Washington, DC, where privacy professionals from around the world gathered to listen to renowned privacy experts speak and share insights on timely privacy topics, challenges and inventive concepts for continuing to move the profession ahead. The award is given annually by the IAPP, which now has over 20,000 members, to a trailblazer in the field of privacy and data protection, whose ongoing commitment to develop security and privacy best practices advances the growth and visibility of the privacy profession.
“Peter Swire has been a recognized leader in the privacy space during his esteemed career both as a professor at some of the nation’s most prestigious institutions and also as a member of the Clinton and Obama administrations,” IAPP President and CEO Trevor Hughes, CIPP, said. “It is with great pleasure that we recognize his commitment to the field of privacy.”
Known during the Clinton Administration as the “Privacy Czar”, Swire was one of five members appointed to President Obama’s Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technology in 2013. The recommendations he made as a member of this team helped to influence important policy changes for the U.S. intelligence community. He was also co-chair of the global process to develop a Do Not Track standard for users surfing the Internet. Under President Clinton, Swire was the Chief Counselor for Privacy in the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, where he was the White House coordinator for the HIPAA medical privacy rule. To date he’s the only person to have U.S. government-wide responsibility for privacy policy. Today, Swire is Senior Counsel, Alston & Bird and Huang Professor of Law and Ethics at the Georgia Tech Scheller College of Business ,with appointments by courtesy in the College of Computing and School of Public Policy.
“In our data-driven age, privacy is the way we govern the data about ourselves. It is with great gratitude that I accept this award from the IAPP, which is the centerpiece organization for the rapidly growing field of privacy professionals. I look forward to continuing my work to assure the dignity of how personal data is used, while also enabling the many good and necessary uses of such data.”