The Centre for Information Policy Leadership at Hunton & Williams LLP To Launch Global Groundbreaking Analytics Project

WASHINGTON — July 11, 2012 — The Centre for Information Policy Leadership at Hunton & Williams LLP today announced the launch of a pan-industry initiative to highlight the benefits and directly address the risks raised by analytics in the age of big data by developing voluntary guidelines for their responsible use by organizations.

"Analytics holds dramatic potential to fuel innovation and economic growth. To realize that potential it will be necessary to address the data protection and privacy issues that the use of analytics raises. The risks to individual privacy must be solved so organizations will be able to use technologies and new sources of data for analytics robustly and with confidence. The Centre's project will create the clear guidance that mitigates against the risks raised by analytics but does not impede their use," said Paula Bruening, Vice President Global Public Policy for the Centre and project leader for this initiative.

To develop this guidance, the Centre will leverage the experience and expertise of specialists in analytics and privacy executives from over 10 companies. Through a series of workshops convened by the Centre, the project will:

• describe the nature of analytics, its benefits to organizations, governments and individuals, and its necessity for innovation and economic growth;
• establish a vocabulary for analytics that is consistent with the terminology used by specialists in the field; and
• develop a framework for the responsible, use of analytics.

Meg Leta Ambrose, a graduate fellow with the University of Colorado Department of Computer Science and Research Assistant with the Silicon Flatirons Center at the University of Colorado School of Law, will serve as an advisor to this initiative.

"Analytics assumes an increasingly important role across a range of disciplines, supporting such endeavors as education, scientific research, health care, demographic analysis, delivery of services to the elderly and disabled and energy conservation. It is important that we arrive at a approach for analytics that promotes the use of analytics in these disciplines, protects the individual and can be applied across a global marketplace," noted Marty Abrams, President of the Centre.

About the Centre

The Centre for Information Policy Leadership leads public policy initiatives that promote responsible data governance necessary for the continued growth of the information economy. The Centre was founded in 2001 by leading companies and Hunton & Williams LLP to develop innovative, pragmatic approaches to privacy and information security that take into account the requirements of business processes and address the concerns of individuals about the protection of their information. Collaborating with industry leaders, consumer organizations and government representatives, the Centre develops information policy that fosters privacy an information security, while balancing economic and societal interests. More details about the Centre can be found at www.informationpolicycentre.com.

About Hunton & Williams LLP

Hunton & Williams LLP provides legal services to corporations, financial institutions, governments and individuals, as well as to a broad array of other entities. Since our establishment more than a century ago, Hunton & Williams has grown to more than 800 lawyers serving clients in 100 countries from 19 offices around the world. While our practice has a strong industry focus on energy, financial services and life sciences, the depth and breadth of our experience extends to more than 100 separate practice areas, including privacy and data security, bankruptcy and creditors' rights, commercial litigation, corporate transactions and securities law, intellectual property, international and government relations, regulatory law, and products liability.