Microsoft: it's time for an international convention on government access to your data

[Windows Central]

Microsoft, along with other companies have been in the news*surrounding the US National Security Agency (NSA) and general privacy concerns that government agencies have easy access to customer data. Brad Smith,*General Counsel & Executive Vice President, Legal & Corporate Affairs at Microsoft, recently published a blog post detailing now is the time for an international convention on government access to data.

Full story from the WPCentral blog...

 

[fatclue_98]

Some may disagree with me but I feel it is the carriers who we need to talk to. They are the ones who ultimately "give it up" to the government or the OEMs. This goes back to the update situation. The carriers block updates until they deem them "safe" for their networks. As such they have the responsibility to tell their customers that the NSA, or any other third party, is requesting (read: demanding) to peruse their data.

Conversely, we've been led down this road by web-based operating systems that are "always on" and purportedly make our lives easier. We want to be connected at all times, receive Facebook or Twitter notifications as they happen, etc. Gone are the days when push email from our Treos or Touch Pro 2s were all we needed. I'm dusting off my old iPAQ 910 just for s**ts and giggles.