Every so often the Wall Street Journal issues its Innovation Awards, for technology innovation.

This past Monday, IBM was recognized in the Wall Street Journal Innovation Awards for its clipped tag.

The beauty of the clipped tag is that it puts control in the hands of consumers, to protect privacy:

IBM's "Clipped Tag" is giving consumers the ability to simply "opt out" and protect their privacy by tearing or scratching off the RFID antennae, eliminating the tag's ability to communicate with other devices or systems.

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"IBM believes that innovation in RFID should move forward with a strong focus on privacy," said Harriet Pearson, IBM's chief privacy officer. "Successful commerce depends on trust."

It is especially interesting to discover that IBM has a Chief Privacy Officer -- a CPO, if you will. That's a first for me. And a good move, as it raises consumer privacy to a corporate level of oversight, recognizing that privacy is as important as technology or marketing or anything else. Perhaps other large companies whose products deal with consumer-touching data will follow suit. (UPDATE September 15, 2006: An alert reader emailed me to let me know that a number of other large corporations do have Chief Privacy Officers -- in fact, it's a trendy thing to have a chief privacy officer.)

For additional background: the Wall Street Journal offers a free podcast interview with one of the judges of the Innovation Award, describing the kind of innovation he looks for.

See also my earlier post: Clippable RFID Tags to Protect Consumers.