Privacy

Microsoft appoints globally respected regulator to privacy leadership role

- Microsoft Corporate Blogs

Microsoft announced today that Julie Brill, former Commissioner of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), will join Microsoft to lead privacy, data protection and other regulatory issues as head of its Privacy and Regulatory Affairs Group. Brill will join as corporate vice president and deputy general counsel for Privacy and Regulatory Affairs. She will report directly to Brad Smith, Microsoft’s president and chief legal officer.

Get GDPR compliant with the Microsoft Cloud

- Brendon Lynch - Chief Privacy Officer, Microsoft

The new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is the most significant change to European Union (EU) privacy law in two decades. The GDPR requires that organizations respect and protect personal data – no matter where it is sent, processed or stored. Complying with the GDPR will not be easy. To simplify your path to compliance, Microsoft is committing to be GDPR compliant across our cloud services when enforcement begins on … Read more »

Microsoft’s commitment to moving technology forward without leaving timeless values behind

- Dervish Tayyip - Assistant General Counsel, Microsoft

The prevailing sentiment at the Internet & Social Media Law conference which took place in London this week was the importance of ensuring rules of conduct and laws for new technologies that respect timeless rights and values. There was a lot of discussion about the need to ensure that the kinds of traditional protections that we have all had, not just for years but for centuries, for information that is … Read more »

Microsoft cloud assurance – legal & regulatory compliance for cloud computing

- Dervish Tayyip - Assistant General Counsel, Microsoft

Technological progress and regulatory & legislative progress remain out of sync.  Many in-house lawyers therefore face the difficult task of protecting their organizations from legal & regulatory risk, while helping them to take advantage of the opportunities that new technologies, such as enterprise cloud computing, offer. At Microsoft we know that we won’t succeed in empowering every person and organization on the planet to achieve more through technology, if we … Read more »

Building a cloud for global good

- Brad Smith - President and Chief Legal Officer

Today Satya Nadella and I are in Dublin. It’s the first stop on a trip that will also take us to Paris and Berlin, with Satya also visiting London. We’re spending this week meeting with customers, partners, developers and government leaders. We’ll talk about how the Microsoft Cloud is driving the transformation of businesses and industries across Europe and around the world. We’ll talk about how our customers have harnessed … Read more »

The role of the Legal & Compliance Community in shaping the future of technology

- Dervish Tayyip - Assistant General Counsel, Microsoft

Legal and Compliance professionals have an important role to play in helping shape the future of technology and cloud computing in particular. That was highlighted at today’s 28th Global Legal ConfEx, where I had the opportunity to deliver a keynote discussing the role of the Legal and Compliance community at a time of great uncertainty. The opportunities offered by cloud computing are big, as many of us who work with … Read more »

Our search warrant case: Microsoft’s commitment to protecting your privacy

- John Frank - Vice President for EU Government Affairs

A few weeks ago, we won a major victory for our European customers in a lawsuit we brought against the US Department of Justice. A US court of appeals ruled that US search warrants do not reach our customers’ data stored abroad. We brought this case because we believe that European citizens and organizations want their data protected by European privacy law, and they do not want their emails and … Read more »

Microsoft signs up for Privacy Shield

- John Frank - Vice President for EU Government Affairs

Today (1 August 2016), Microsoft signed up for the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield. As one of the first companies, we have submitted our Privacy Shield certification to the U.S. Department of Commerce and we expect it to be approved in the coming days. Going forward, any data which we will transfer from Europe to the United States will be protected by the Privacy Shield’s safeguards. The Privacy Shield is an important … Read more »

Our search warrant case: An important decision for people everywhere

- Brad Smith - President and Chief Legal Officer

We obviously welcome today’s decision by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The decision is important for three reasons: it ensures that people’s privacy rights are protected by the laws of their own countries; it helps ensure that the legal protections of the physical world apply in the digital domain; and it paves the way for better solutions to address both privacy and law enforcement needs.

EU-U.S. Privacy Shield: Progress for privacy rights

- John Frank - Vice President for EU Government Affairs

We at Microsoft welcome the new EU-U.S. Privacy Shield decision, which the European Commission is expected to announce on 12 July. It sets a new high standard for the protection of Europeans’ personal data. Microsoft regards privacy as a fundamental right and we believe the Privacy Shield advances this right. This is an important achievement for the privacy rights of citizens across Europe, and for companies across all industries that … Read more »