Microsoft: Privacy Key in Digital World; Outdated Laws Must Be Updated

“People need to trust that their data stored in the cloud will remain accessible to them and to those they designate, while not being disclosed to others without their permission or knowledge,” Brad Smith, Microsoft executive vice president-legal and corporate affairs, wrote in a blog post Wednesday. Microsoft has participated in the World Economic Forum’s Digital Infrastructure and Applications 2020+ initiative for the past two years to “ensure a healthy, growing digital ecosystem,” Smith said, and commends the forum’s recently released report on “the needs of users to securely access and transport their own data with appropriate privacy protections.” In February Microsoft became the first major cloud provider to adopt the world’s first international standard for cloud privacy, he said. “Compliance with this standard ensures that enterprise customers are in control of their data,” Smith said. Microsoft is also “active in the development of the ISO/IEC 19941 standard to address cloud interoperability and data portability, which benefits customers by assuring them they won’t be locked into any single cloud vendor,” Smith said. “Standards like these are key to addressing the ‘sources of friction in transporting, using and accessing data’ referenced in the Forum’s report as barriers to user adoption of networked, cloud-based applications and services,” he said. Smith said uncertainties in “cross-border legal regimes create another important source of friction,” and laws around the world are “woefully outdated.” Microsoft is part of a broad coalition of companies and associations in the technology, telecommunications, manufacturing and cloud computing sectors advocating for passage of common-sense updates to laws to “better balance the protection of public safety and personal privacy,” Smith said.