Privacy expert sleeps with the enemy

Microsoft has confirmed it is to employ long-time privacy activist Caspar Bowden in a move that suggests Microsoft is - or at least is trying to look like it is - taking security and privacy seriously.

Caspar Bowden was until recently chair of the Foundation for Information Policy Research, where he worked tirelessly to preserve civil liberties in the information age. Among other achievements, he led the fight against government snooping legislation and managed to get some of the laws changed.

However, only last week Microsoft roused the ire of the privacy lobby again with its proposed Palladium security technology, and in the past Bowden has been highly critical of Microsoft.

Speaking exclusively to silicon.com, Steven Adler, who heads up the Trustworthy Computing initiative in EMEA for Microsoft, confirmed the move.

He said: "I was asked to set up a group in EMEA to tackle all the issues around security, and as of this week Caspar is a member of that group.

"We are absolutely serious about security, and if we are to get people to trust us we have to show that we realise security is not just about one thing, it's about privacy and reliability and a whole host of other things."

Bowden is joining Microsoft on a full-time contract, and will be part of the team formulating policy in this area.