Brad Smith talked about government's latest programs in a new conference

Jun 25, 2014 17:11 GMT  ·  By

Microsoft is one of the companies that have often been involved in government spying on users scandals, with some reports that came out in the last few months indicating that Redmond helped US agencies to collect data about its customers.

While the software giant has already denied such claims and explained that it only shares user information based on court requests, the company's general counsel Brad Smith said with every single occasion that the government must stop any secret practices and come up with a legal request if they want to access private data.

The same idea was reiterated at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC, where Smith called on the Congress and the White House to stop attempts to reach user information, which he referred to as “the unfettered collection of bulk data.”

“I want law enforcement to do its job in an effective way pursuant to the rule of law,” he was quoted as saying by CNET. “If we can't get to that world, then law enforcement is going to have a bleak future anyway.”

Smith explained that the number of devices connected to the Internet was growing, so unless the government stops such programs, the problem of privacy is very likely to escalate quickly.

“By the end of this decade there will be 50 billion devices connected to the Internet of Things around the world. This issue is going to become more important, not less,” he said.

Smith went on to explain that just like the other tech companies in the United States, Microsoft is built on customers' trust, so if the government continues plans to spy on users and access their details, many users might actually feel unsafe to purchase their products.

That would in the end affect these companies' businesses, which in its turn would have a negative impact on the United States economy. Smith pointed out that confidence in the company whose products you purchase is essential, so the government needs to act really quickly in this case in order to make sure that they're not doing more harm than good.

“We are in a business that relies on people's trust,” he added. “We're offering a world where you should feel comfortable about storing (your information) in the cloud...You need to have confidence that this information is still yours. The fundamental question that we all have to ask ourselves,” he said, “is, What enduring values do we want to continue to enhance?”