Microsoft is supporting Apple’s recent call for the creation of new privacy law in the US similar to Europe’s GDPR. Microsoft believes that voluntary actions by tech companies are not enough and that the US government must enact a law that will strengthen the government’s policy on data protection.
Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which is marking its first anniversary, consists of separate 99 articles. Four of these articles require that:
- there must be a lawful reason to process data
- personal data must be encrypted
- you have a right to process data
- you can ask for your data to be deleted
These requirements are essential if companies want to store and process personal data.
Apple CEO Tim Cook has been urging for the enactment of a federal law that will create a US version of Europe’s GDPR. But it seems the government is not hearing this call. And now Microsoft is supporting Apple’s call through a post on its official blog.
According to the post, Microsoft noted that many other countries have adopted privacy laws similar to Europe’s GDPR. Microsoft said that it doesn’t matter how much tech companies try to secure sensitive data and empower individuals to manage their own data, a government law is still the best way to preserve a strong right to privacy. The US government and other countries should join the EU and pass national legislation that accounts for how people use technology in their lives today.
In addition, Microsoft also said that federal privacy legislation should work with GDPR aside from reflecting US legal precedent and the cultural values and norms of American society. The interplay between GDPR and US law will bring about the reduction of cost and complexity of compliance to privacy law and ensures that companies don’t need to build separate systems to meet requirements for privacy protection in the countries where they do business.
