Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella bats for global rules on data privacy

Privacy is a human right, Microsoft Corp.’s CEO Satya Nadella said Tuesday, even as he batted for global regulation on safety and privacy of data to make sure that tech products and services are safe to use.
“So I look forward to a world where we do have, just after all we have food safety laws we have drug safety laws, there will be similarly I think rules and regulations (on data). Hopefully there is a global norm around,” the India-born chief executive officer of the Seattle, US-based firm said during a virtual interactive session with Telangana IT and Industries Minister KT Rama Rao at BioAsia 2021. “One thing that I would hope for is that we don’t fragment. We are able to—whether on privacy or safety—bring together a set of global rules that will allow all of us to both comply and make sure that we know what we build is safe to use.”
According to Nadella, regulations are in place and initiatives such as General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) are spreading worldwide. Tech companies should design and build products keeping in mind user privacy and no lackadaisical attitude in this regard should be tolerated, he said.