As the first anniversary of Europe’s highly acclaimed standard privacy law “GDPR” approaches, Microsoft, like Apple, has expressed its interest in having similar laws in the US as well. Microsoft believes that the users from all around the world should be protected on the web and laws similar to GDPR can offer that protection but the Companies alone cannot enforce them.
For those of you unaware, GDPR requires any company that intends on storing and working on a user’s data to have a valid reason to process the data, in addition to encrypt the personal data as well as allow users to keep a copy of their data and request for their data to be deleted if they wish to.
After Apple CEO Tim Cook requested for a similar protection law to be adopted by US federally at multiple occasions, Microsoft has now chimed in too and in a lengthy blog post, explained why the governments need to enforce a similar law.
In the post, Julie Brill, Microsoft's Corporate Vice President and Deputy General Counsel, explained how several countries have enforced new laws or are planning to change the current laws just so that their privacy regulations can be considered in line with those of GDPR.
According to Microsoft, it can help companies and individuals in securing and managing their data but a privacy law can only be enforced by governments and thus it’s high time that Congress takes the example of rest of the world and pass federal legislation that will enforce GDPR’s protections for US users as well.
Microsoft believes that affiliation with GDPR is important and it can prove to be beneficial for the country as well as this way, it won’t have to spend its resources in coming up with a new system to ensure privacy and data protection.
Although both Republican and Democratic view is that a federal privacy law needs to be passed, the former believes that FTC should only be allowed to enforce the rules devised by the legislative branch; while the latter believes in giving FTC the authority to device and enforce privacy rules. Because of this, an agreement hasn’t been reached yet.
Only time will tell how USA plans on tackling this issue. Stay tuned for any further updates and let us know whether the country should comply with GDPR standards or introduce its own version of the Regulation.
Read next: These 6 Brilliant Infographics Will Teach You Everything You Need to Know About The EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
For those of you unaware, GDPR requires any company that intends on storing and working on a user’s data to have a valid reason to process the data, in addition to encrypt the personal data as well as allow users to keep a copy of their data and request for their data to be deleted if they wish to.
After Apple CEO Tim Cook requested for a similar protection law to be adopted by US federally at multiple occasions, Microsoft has now chimed in too and in a lengthy blog post, explained why the governments need to enforce a similar law.
In the post, Julie Brill, Microsoft's Corporate Vice President and Deputy General Counsel, explained how several countries have enforced new laws or are planning to change the current laws just so that their privacy regulations can be considered in line with those of GDPR.
According to Microsoft, it can help companies and individuals in securing and managing their data but a privacy law can only be enforced by governments and thus it’s high time that Congress takes the example of rest of the world and pass federal legislation that will enforce GDPR’s protections for US users as well.
Microsoft believes that affiliation with GDPR is important and it can prove to be beneficial for the country as well as this way, it won’t have to spend its resources in coming up with a new system to ensure privacy and data protection.
Although both Republican and Democratic view is that a federal privacy law needs to be passed, the former believes that FTC should only be allowed to enforce the rules devised by the legislative branch; while the latter believes in giving FTC the authority to device and enforce privacy rules. Because of this, an agreement hasn’t been reached yet.
Only time will tell how USA plans on tackling this issue. Stay tuned for any further updates and let us know whether the country should comply with GDPR standards or introduce its own version of the Regulation.
Read next: These 6 Brilliant Infographics Will Teach You Everything You Need to Know About The EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
