In light of the recent data-privacy debate going on in the U.S., Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates spoke up about another on-going case against the U.S. government on getting information about a certain entity's or individual's email without informing them.
In the name of justice and prevention of crime, the U.S. government previously promoted the Data-Privacy Shield Agreement wherein technology corporations, like Apple and Microsoft, are asked to hand over devices or information on users when the need comes in order for crimes or other matters as ordered by the court to be solved.
However, Microsoft filed a lawsuit against the Justice Department, as it is opposing the government from taking their customer's information or even devices and encrypt them to get what they need in relation to a case, Bloomberg reported.
Now, Microsoft's co-founder speaks up and urges that there should be a balance between the two sides of the matter. "There probably are some cases where (the government) should be able to go in covertly and get information about a company's email," Gates said at the Newsmaker event in Washington, as per Reuters.
"But the position Microsoft is taking in this suit is that it should be extraordinary and it shouldn't be a matter of course that there is a gag order automatically put in," he said of the on-going lawsuit.
Furthermore, the business mogul urged that the private sector and the government should at least agree on a perfect balance for the goal to work out, and that is the safety of the people and the respect of privacy.
"I don't think there are any absolutists who think the government should be able to get everything or the government should be able to get nothing," Gates continued. The issue comes with the private companies' desire to keep their businesses running even with complying to the government's orders.
"The companies are trying to find a way forward in a world in which the law is not very good," Greg Nojeim, senior counsel at the Center for Democracy & Technology, said, as per Bloomberg. "It doesn't provide in the digital world the same protections it provides in the physical world. Securing those protections is good for both their users and their bottom line."
However, the point that the government wants to show is that all these are for the sole purpose of keeping peace and order, Bill Fitzpatrick, the district attorney in Onondaga County New York who also endorsed the legislation in Congress, said, as per the publication.
"The government doesn't want to be in your phone, it wants to be in the phones of people plotting against our communities," Fitzpatrick said. "There needs to be that understanding and I don't think these corporations are anywhere close to that."
