The two companies were selected as the Audience Choice Award winners at the pii2011 conference in Silicon Valley last week.

Personal and Passtouch were each presented with an Audience Choice Award for their participation in the 2nd annual Privacy Identity Innovation conference (pii2011), which was held May 19-20 at the Santa Clara Marriott hotel in Silicon Valley. The two companies were among 12 tech start-ups selected to demo their technologies on stage as part of the pii2011 Innovator Spotlight program.

Personal and Passtouch were chosen by an audience of over 250 leading executives, technologists, policy experts and academic researchers that gathered at pii2011 last week to look at where innovation is heading and what it means for the future of digital privacy, identity and trust.

Personal, based in Washington, D.C., has developed a platform to enable individuals to own, control and benefit from their data instead of companies. Co-founder and CEO Shane Green demonstrated their first product, a Web and mobile data vault for organizing, finding and giving permission-based access to personal data, and introduced the company’s Owner Data Agreement, which provides a new legal framework to protect individuals. To learn more about Personal, visit http://www.personal.com.

“We are excited to receive the pii2011 Innovator Spotlight Audience Choice Award not only because it was the first time we introduced Personal to the industry, but also because it was decided by our peers – many of whom have been working on these issues for years,” said Green.

The other audience favorite was Passtouch, a stealth start-up located in Surf City, North Carolina that is in the process of developing a quick and secure password alternative for touch screen devices. In his five-minute on stage demo at pii2011, the company’s founder and CEO Jason Boger demonstrated how his technology’s interface was so user-friendly that even a four-year-old child could use it. Boger expects Passtouch’s first product, an iPad application, to be available in the Apple iTunes Store later this summer. More information about Passtouch is available at http://www.passtouch.com.

The pi2011 Innovator Spotlight program, which was sponsored by Innovators Network, also featured presentations from the founders of 10 other start-ups:

• Bluelight – Bluelight is an iPhone app that notifies your friends and family when you don't arrive at your destination as planned, maintaining both privacy and safety.
• BUMP.com – BUMP.com is a provider of cloud-based transaction, membership and communication technologies, including a social network utilizing license plate messaging and location couponing.
• Connect.me – Connect.me is the first social discovery network that works across all popular social networks, starting with Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, enabling people to build their own personal trust networks by vouching for the people they respect most in the contexts they care about most.
• Disconnect – Disconnect helps people understand the data they share online and makes simple tools for them to control this data.
• Everloop – Everloop is the next generation in online social community platforms designed specifically for users under the age of 13.
• FaceCash – FaceCash is a payment system that turns your phone into a digital wallet. Instead of using your written signature to verify purchases, merchants use FaceCash to verify that your real face matches a digital image linked to your account.
• idAngels – idAngels maps the natural ability of people to recognize one another across the population. Through carefully choreographed social collaboration around photos, webcams and mobile phones, idAngels protect the people that they care about from identity fraud.
• NeighborGoods – NeighborGoods.net connects neighbors to save money, live more sustainably and strengthen their local community by sharing goods and skills in a safe and fun community.
• SecretSocial –SecretSocial is a real-time service for people to have authentic conversations on the social Web.
• WanderID – WanderID helps identify young children and people with cognitive difficulties like Alzheimer's, autism, brain injury or Down syndrome who are often not able to identify themselves in an emergency.

“All of the companies that participated in the Innovator Spotlight program did an incredible job of showcasing their technologies, and they deserve congratulations,” said pii2011 co-founder and executive producer Natalie Fonseca. “We look forward to watching their progress in the weeks and months ahead.”

Independently produced by SageScape, the creators of the annual Tech Policy Summit conference, pii2011 offers an open forum for spirited and participatory dialogue about the future of digital privacy and identity in an increasingly interconnected world. Last week’s conference featured speakers from over 70 companies and organizations, including Facebook, Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Intuit, HP, TRUSTe, Pattern Builders, BlueCava, Face.com, Loopt, the Federal Trade Commission, Privacy Rights Clearinghouse and SelectOut.

The next conference is currently being planned for the Fall of 2011. More information on pii2011 and the Innovator Spotlight program can be found online at http://pii2011.com.

Sponsors of the pii2011 conference include Google, TRUSTe, Innovators Network, TechAmerica, PrivacyCamp, Privacy by Design, Center for Democracy and Technology, Center for Policy on Emerging Technologies, Techdirt and Women 2.0.

About SageScape
Privacy Identity Innovation (pii2011) and pii Labs are independently produced by SageScape, a privately-held company founded in 2003 that specializes in producing and promoting executive-level conferences and online communities for the high technology industry. In addition to the annual Tech Policy Summit (TPS) and Privacy Identity Innovation conferences, SageScape works on leading industry events for a variety of clients -- ranging from early-stage start-ups to top global brands. To learn more, visit our sites at http://pii2011.com and http://TechPolicyCentral.com You can also follow us on Twitter at @TechPolicy.

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