Congress must update our outdated privacy laws
Today I appeared as a witness before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee Hearing on “International Conflicts of Law and their Implications for Cross Border Data Requests by Law Enforcement.”
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Brad Smith
Why Microsoft’s president brought IBM’s first laptop to Congress today
Microsoft president and chief legal officer Brad Smith spoke to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee today, and he brought an antique piece of technology to prove his point.
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Microsoft Backs Apple in FBI Battle
Microsoft president and chief legal officer Brad Smith said at a congressional hearing on Thursday that his company "wholeheartedly" supports Apple's refusal to assist the FBI in unlocking a terrorist's iPhone. “We at Microsoft support Apple and will be filing an amicus brief next week,” he said.
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The search warrant case: consequences for digital privacy
On December 15, 2014, a coalition of business, media, civil society and academic experts joined Microsoft in raising concerns about privacy protections for information stored in the cloud.
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Brad Smith on Protecting Privacy in the Cloud
Microsoft president Brad Smith joined Quest Means Business after the company said it would build data centers in Europe to protect customer privacy
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The collapse of the U.S.-EU Safe Harbor: solving the new privacy rubik’s cube
When people who care about technology look back at the year 2015, they will remember October as the month when the EU-U.S. Safe Harbor collapsed. An international legal agreement that has been in place for 15 years was invalidated in a single day.
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A message to our customers about EU-U.S. Safe Harbor
We appreciate that some of our customers have questions about the impact of the ruling today by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) about the EU – US Safe Harbor Framework. In particular some customers may ask if this means that they will no longer be able to transfer their customer data from the European...
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Passing ECPA reform – it has never been more important
This is an important week for privacy in the nation’s capital. With a hearing today before the Senate Judiciary Committee, another focus on privacy begins in earnest.
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Do Local Laws Belong In a Global Cloud? Part Two of a Q&A with Brad Smith of Microsoft
This is the second part of my Q&A with Microsoft Executive Vice President and General Counsel Brad Smith over the company’s legal battle with the U.S. Department of Justice over e-mails stored in Ireland. The case raises important questions with respect to the privacy of digital communications and the future of cloud computing.
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Do Local Laws Belong In a Global Cloud? Q&A with Brad Smith of Microsoft (Part One)
In light of the significance of this case for U.S. consumers and businesses, and the impact that its outcome could have on the privacy of digital communications, Brad Smith, executive vice president and general counsel for Microsoft, took the time to answer some questions regarding the case and what its outcome might mean.
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Who Owns Your Email? An Interview With Brad Smith, General Counsel Of Microsoft
Where is your data? We talk about “the cloud” as if it’s something mystical or unfathomable, but that data is stored in a real place. I suppose calling it “the cloud” is catchier than “offsite server,” but that’s really all that it means. Every Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo!, and AOL e-mail is saved in some temperature-controlled, secure data center somewhere in the world.
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Our legal challenge to a U.S. government search warrant
Last evening, we filed our reply brief in our ongoing legal challenge to the U.S. government’s attempt to force us to turn over a customer’s email stored in our Irish data center. As we stated in our brief, we believe the law is on the side of privacy in this case.
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Brad Smith on the importance of the Rule of Law
Brad Smith – General Counsel and Executive Vice President, Microsoft Excerpted from remarks at the Centre for European Policy Studies, Brussels, January 20, 2015
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Trust, data and national sovereignty: solutions for a connected world
Brad Smith – General Counsel and Executive Vice President, Microsoft Excerpted from remarks at the Centre for European Policy Studies, Brussels, January 20, 2015
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Brad Smith on the need for rules which work across borders
Brad Smith – General Counsel and Executive Vice President, Microsoft Excerpted from remarks at the Centre for European Policy Studies, Brussels, January 20, 2015
Read MoreMicrosoft responds to ruling in warrant case
Microsoft Executive Vice President and General Counsel Brad Smith provided the following response to a federal court ruling in New York today, in the company’s ongoing case challenging a U.S. government warrant for customer data stored in Dublin, Ireland:</br> </br>“The only issue that was certain this morning was that the District Court’s decision would not represent the final step in this process. We will appeal promptly and continue to advocate that people’s email deserves strong privacy protection in the U.S. and around the world.”
Read MoreWSJ opinion by Brad Smith: we’re fighting the feds over your email
Today The Wall Street Journal published a column by Microsoft Executive Vice President and General Counsel Brad Smith explaining why Microsoft is opposing the U.S. government’s demand for a customer’s email stored in Dublin, Ireland. As Smith writes, "This dispute should be important to you if you use email, because it could well turn on who owns your email—you or the company that stores it in the cloud."
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The future of global technology, privacy and regulation
On June 25, Governance Studies at Brookings hosted an event to explore the future of global technology, privacy, and data protection with Brad Smith, executive vice president and general counsel at Microsoft, to address these and other questions.
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Brad Smith, “A Conversation and Q&A with Andrew Rasiej”
Personal Democacy Forum 2014 Brad Smith, Executive Vice President and General Counsel, Microsoft Legal and Corporate Affairs (LCA), “A Conversation and Q&A with Andrew Rasiej
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Providing additional transparency on U.S. government requests for customer data
Today we are updating our transparency reporting to provide new information relating to governmental demands for customer data. Beginning last summer, Microsoft, Google, and other companies filed lawsuits against the U.S. government arguing that we have a legal and constitutional right to disclose more detailed information about these demands. We contended that we should be able to disclose information about legal orders issued pursuant to U.S. national security laws such as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which we had previously been barred from disclosing.
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