Let’s treat privacy as a human right, says Nadella
Privacy is a human right and the world needs strong regulation over facial recognition technology, said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, as concerns about data protection and its misuse for surveillance grow.
The default position had to be that people owned their own data, said Nadella, in a panel discussion on data protection and privacy at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos.
Last year, several global technology and social media giants were charged with violations of data and privacy, including Facebook, giving political consultants Cambridge Analytica access to the data of 87 million people.
The UK’s data watchdog slapped a £500,000 fine on Facebook over its handling of user data, while the French privacy authority fined Google 50 million euros for allegedly breaching European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Nadella praised the GDPR, which was enacted by the European Parliament in May 2018 to regulate how data is handled across all sectors, from healthcare to banking. The companies that are not compliant face heavy fines.
“My own point of view is that it’s a fantastic start in treating privacy as a human right. I hope that in the US, we do something similar, and that the world converges on a common standard,” said Nadella.
The software giant has been at the forefront of raising concerns about the potential misuse of facial recognition, which is used in many new smartphones, including Apple’s latest iPhones and Samsung’s Galaxy phones.
Conceived primarily to identify users with biometric authentication to bolster the security of devices, the potential for misuse is extremely high.
“It’s a piece of technology that’s going to be democratised, that’s going to be prevalent. I can come up with 10 uses that are very virtuous and important and can improve human life, and 10 uses that would cause problems,” Nadella said.