Once upon a time, as we looked toward an Orwellian 1984, the fear was that the government, aka Big Brother, would threaten our privacy rights. However, in the digital age, a greater concern has emerged that our sensitive personal and identifying information can be misused by private business entities.

That said, it's time to applaud those companies that have shown leadership and innovation in terms of developing programs specifically designed to safeguard privacy interests, and to recognize the "Most Trusted Company for Privacy" in the USA: Hewlett Packard (H-P).

Indeed, TRUSTe, an online privacy organization, and Ponemon Institute, an information-management think tank, recently announced that the Most Trusted Company for Privacy Award has been awarded to H-P for the establishment and enforcement of progressive privacy practices.

A judging panel, consisting of privacy experts from academia and industry (and including this columnist) reviewed and selected HP out of 50 eligible companies for its comprehensive privacy program. The Most Trusted Company for Privacy Award matches consumer experience and perceptions of trust with expert insight into a company's active privacy initiatives to create a trusted brand.

The 50 companies which headed the list in a consumer-focused study released in June by the Ponemon Institute and TRUSTe were invited to participate in the award program. In that prior study, the public selected eBay, American Express and H-P (in order) as the leading companies in trust and privacy protection.

The Most Trusted Company for Privacy Award, meanwhile, examined internal programs and focused on the effective and innovative privacy policies actually being used and applied in each company's business. Every one of the top 50 showed leadership in multiple aspects of privacy. Ranked among the top ten by the panel of judges were AOL, Charles Schwab, eBay, GE, Intuit, MSN, Nationwide, Verizon Communications, WebMD Health and Wachovia.

"H-P ranked high in consumers' overall perceptions and was able to support its leading position with an aggressive and thorough privacy campaign," said Fran Maier, president and executive director of TRUSTe. "H-P has been active in making privacy a priority in how it interacts with customers and conducts business at large. We applaud their efforts and the importance they place on privacy throughout their organization."

"We are honored to be recognized as America's Most Trusted Company for Privacy," said Barbara Lawler, Chief Privacy Officer at H-P. "Protecting our customers' and employees' privacy is fundamental to our global citizenship objectives and is vital in developing and maintaining trusted relationships with customers, employees and partners."

"H-P has distinguished its trustworthiness among consumers, and our panel of experts confirmed that H-P's privacy program deserves that customer trust and loyalty," said Larry Ponemon, Chairman of Ponemon Institute. "In the end what makes a successful world class company is customer trust, and this award is designed to recognize those organizations who make consumer privacy rights part of their core values."

The judging committee tasked with evaluating in-house company privacy programs included Mary Culnan, professor at Bentley College; James Koenig, privacy practice leader for PricewaterhouseCoopers; Fran Maier, president and executive director for TRUSTe; Dr. Larry Ponemon, founder and chairman for Ponemon Institute and Eric Sinrod, your legal columnist for USAToday.com.

Even though H-P was ranked highest by the judging committee, all of the companies evaluated have strong privacy programs and deserve recognition and praise for their leadership. Hopefully, as time goes on, other companies will join these top companies in showing great respect for consumer data privacy.

Eric Sinrod is a partner in the San Francisco office of Duane Morris (www.duanemorris.com), where he focuses on litigation matters of various types, including information technology disputes. His column appears Wednesdays at USATODAY.com. His Web site is www.sinrodlaw.com, and he can be reached at . To receive a weekly e-mail link to Mr. Sinrod's columns, please send an e-mail with the word Subscribe in the Subject line to .

Reprinted here with permission from USAToday.com.