If Microsoft’s General Counsel has his way, 2015 will be a “year for solutions” when it comes to the intersection of the internet and international law.
Brad Smith told an audience at a an event organized by the Center for European Policy Studies in Brussels, Belgium that the regulations governing how internet companies handle user privacy and government requests for data are woefully outdated and ready for a refresh.
“Here in Europe the data protection directive was written mostly in the early 1990s, when I spent seven years living and working here and using a PC that didn’t have a mouse and a cell phone that couldn’t be detached from my car,” Smith said. “In the United States the Electronic Communications Privacy Act is even older, having been adopted in 1986. And while these are not the only two important laws on the books, most of the laws that are relevant to technology all share one common feature – if they were technology products, they would be in a museum.”
In their place, Smith said that governments need to set up a new framework for handling security and data requests. In particular, he called for greater transparency, and protection of “fundamental freedoms,” including freedom of speech and a right to privacy. He also called for a new framework for managing data requests across national boundaries that would respect the sovereignty of the countries in which those data reside.
In his view, governments that want to access information across national boundaries should request it through the local government where that information is stored. That last piece is hardly surprising coming from Smith, since Microsoft has been busy fighting a U.S. Magistrate Judge’s ruling requiring it to turn over data stored in an Irish data center.
There’s going to be a lot on the tech industry’s plate this year when it comes to governmental oversight. President Obama’s new budget calls for $14 billion in spending on cybersecurity, and European governments are mulling new security laws following the attack on Charlie Hebdo in France last month.
