A consortium of 16 IT vendors and financial services companies has set up an organization to calm consumers’ fears over the electronic storage of personal information. The International Security Trust and Privacy Alliance (ISTPA), based in the US and entirely composed of US companies, sees itself helping to establish standard interfaces for transferring personal data and plans to develop a common language for use with devices trafficking in personal data. It also hopes to provide a ‘proof of concept’ authenticator for data protection software. Founder members include Compaq, Microsoft, and IBM from the IT world, and Chase Manhattan and Bank of America from the financial sector.
