Microsoft’s Brad Smith: U.S. Laws On Technology Are Outdated

Microsoft’s Brad Smith joined HuffPost Live at Davos on Saturday to discuss the importance of online security and privacy.

“2015 needs to be a year for new solutions, and that’s what we’re proposing. We do need new laws in the United States and in Europe,” Smith said. “We’re trying to manage 21st century technology issues with laws that were written in the ’80s and ’90s.”

Smith said people need to feel comfortable about their online privacy, noting users won’t put online data in a place they don’t trust, just like they wouldn’t deposit money at a bank they didn’t find stable.

“In some sense, we’re the next generation of banks,” Smith said.

Smith said lawmakers in the U.S. and Europe need to discuss how to increase online privacy while still providing law enforcement with information they need. He said the hardest part about dealing with a hacking crime is identifying and finding a hacker.

“Our prisons are not full of hackers,” Smith said, noting hackers are often in countries outside the U.S.

Below, live updates from the 2015 Davos Annual Meeting:

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“Could there be a piece of technology that figures out an intelligent next question to ask somebody? Yeah,” McAfee said.

“For 200 years of industrial technology, we’ve been making workers obsolete,” McAfee said.

McAfee said nobody knows if we’re reaching the point where technological developments could lead to unemployment.

Woods said it’s normal for government entities to reach out to consulting groups, but usually the process takes a lot more time.

“The coordination has been better than I’ve ever seen it on a global scale,” Woods said.

Courtois said new devices are “enabling people to do more stuff, to do great stuff.”

Courtois also spoke about new technology being developed by Microsoft that will allow users to interact with 3D holograms.

Courtois shared how Microsoft played a role after the recent terror attacks in Paris, partnering with French law enforcement and the FBI to get police information they needed within 45 minutes of the attack’s start.

Jean-Philippe Courtois on HuffPost Live

Jean-Philippe Courtois, president of Microsoft International, spoke about the steps his company is taking to maintain the public’s trust as data moves further into the Cloud.

Courtois said Microsoft has been focusing on several aspects: improving how they anchor the data; certification and compliance of infrastructure; and transparency.

“This is a big deal to actually report back to society what we do with data and how we deal with government requests,” Courtois said about being a transparent company.

Valerie Keller and Cheryl Grise of the EY Beacon Institute talk with HuffPost Live about how to transform your business through a better sense of purpose.

The Huffington Post