In light of the recent revelations on mass surveillance programmes, Director of SMU School of Information Systems Postgraduate Research Programmes and Professor of Information Systems Pang Hwee Hwa’s research into enhancing data privacy may bring relief to both companies and individuals alike. Prof Pang was initially trained in the field of database management; however, the challenge of overcoming confounding mathematical methods and abstract algorithms attracted him to the field of data privacy in recent years. According to Prof Pang, current legislation coupled with existing industry standards of data privacy will determine the level of trust that companies and consumers are willing to place in database service providers. That, in turn, will drive greater efforts and investments towards the development and deployment of stronger privacy protection solutions.