Bloomberg Chief Executive Daniel Doctoroff said the company wants to "go even further and get the benefit of independent leading experts so that we set the new standard for privacy and data security, " in a statement announcing Mr. Palmisano's appointment Friday.

WSJ: Bloomberg Taps Ex-IBM Chief Palmisano to Look Into Data Practices

In response to Monday's announcement from Microsoft, Google's global privacy counsel Peter Fleischer offered a statement pointing out Google's decision in June to make user data anonymous after 18 months.

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