Microsoft Canada announced the creation of the Child Exploitation Tracking System (CETS), which is helping international law enforcement stop those who prey on children online.

"Our vision is to support more effective child-exploitation policing by enabling collaboration and information sharing across police services," says David Hemler, president of Microsoft Canada. "The tracking system will serve as a repository of information and will also be used as an investigative tool."

Using CETS, police agencies can manage and analyze huge volumes of information in powerful new ways, such as cross-referencing obscure data relationships and using social-network analysis to identify communities of offenders.

"CETS has helped police catch up with cyber-criminals on the Internet," Sergeant Paul Gillespie says. "The product has exceeded my wildest dreams. I have also been impressed by Microsoft Canada and their passion to do the right thing. I am overwhelmed with their sense of responsibility."

I continue to be pleasantly surprised with the work Microsoft is doing to become a "kinder, gentler" brand. So far they've spent almost $4 million on CETS (pocket change, I know) and plans to spend more as it rolls out globally. I hear many execs asking, "what's the ROI on social engagement? Connecting with customers? Being ecologically aware?" etc etc. Here's the ROI: people will like you. I know, that's rather simplistic and touchy-feely. But how do you put a dollar value on being liked and appreciated? What are the odds of people doing business with a company they genuinely like, versus with the many closed-off companies that are just focused on making a buck? Unfortunately there's no scientific model to prove this. We'll just have to wait for more companies to start demonstrating that the theory works.