Privacy and Start-ups were the highlights for this last day of Sun's global media summit. On the privacy front, I met again with Michelle Dennedy, Sun's Chief Privacy Officer or CPO. Contrary to some companies, where both roles of CPO and Chief Security Officer (CSO) would be held by the same person, Sun decided to have it seperate.

At Sun, the CPO provides guidelines in protecting the privacy of users (inside or outside the enterprise) as well as defining what type of data should be kept secret. In her presentation, Dennedy described her role as a CPO as follows:

•Police officer
• Doctor
• Legal advisor
• Therapist
• Evangelist
• Consumer advocate
• Accountant
• Auditor
• Strategic Asset Advisor

On the other hand, the CSO will implement the guidelines defined by the CPO on the technical level using technologies like firewalls, encryption, etc.

Michelle Dennedy, on her role as Sun's Chief Privacy Officer:


Dennedy explains how the self-imposed higher privacy standards at Sun made the company walked away from a $100+ million deal at a time when Sun was in financial troubles:


Here, Dennedy explains the difference she sees between the role of a Chief Privacy Officer and a Chief Security Officer: