Sharing new customer resources for EU’s General Data Protection Regulation

- Brendon Lynch - Chief Privacy Officer, Microsoft
Microsoft corporate vice president Julia White speaks to four participants during webinar

Microsoft on ‘Trust, Privacy and the GDPR’ – webinar replay available now Meeting the requirements of the European Union’s landmark General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) by May 25, 2018 is a pressing topic for many organizations worldwide. In our effort to provide customers with helpful GDPR compliance resources, we hosted a GDPR webinar with a panel of thought leaders earlier this week titled, “Microsoft on Trust, Privacy and the GDPR.” Read more »

How the Microsoft Cloud can accelerate your GDPR compliance for the EU

- Suzanne Choney

The European Union’s new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) takes effect a year from tomorrow. While some companies have already started working toward GDPR compliance, Gartner believes that less than 50 percent of all organizations will fully comply with the GDPR when it goes into effect on May 25, 2018, writes Julia White, Microsoft corporate vice president of Azure, Hybrid Cloud, Enterprise Security and Management. “We know that the cloud Read more »

Empowering a more accessible and inclusive world

- Jenny Lay-Flurrie - Chief Accessibility Officer
Photo of a host and a panel of four people on stage

With the right tools, there are no limits to what people can achieve, including people with disabilities. So today has special meaning: It’s the sixth Global Accessibility Awareness Day focused on raising awareness of digital accessibility to build a more accessible and inclusive world, and a great day to reflect on the journey both past, present and future. As many of you know, our mission at Microsoft is to empower Read more »

The fight against tech support scams

- Courtney Gregoire - Assistant General Counsel, Microsoft Digital Crimes Unit
World map shows clusters of red circles that are especially concentrated in the United States, Europe and southeast Asia

Throughout this month, I will join AARP, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson and BECU at a series of “Unmasking the Imposters“ events to help educate Washington consumers about how to spot and avoid tech support scams. Senior citizens are not the only ones who are being targeted by these fraudsters. If you haven’t experienced a tech support scam yet, chances are you know someone Read more »

Why Microsoft is adopting the new international anti-bribery standard

- David Howard - Corporate Vice President & Deputy General Counsel, Litigation, Competition Law and Compliance

A few weeks ago, we announced here, and in Ethisphere Magazine, that Microsoft would be the first U.S. company (and first multi-national company) to seek to certify our anti-corruption compliance program to the new international anti-bribery standard, ISO 37001. This means that an independent and accredited third party will perform a rigorous analysis of our program and ensure that it satisfies the very specific requirements of the new standard. I Read more »

Securing digital transformation through IoT cybersecurity policy

- Paul Nicholas - Senior Director, Global Security Strategy and Diplomacy, Microsoft
Graphic shows cycle from building IoT product to maintaining IoT solution

Around the world, organizations and individuals are experiencing a fundamental shift in their relationship with technology. This transformation, often called the Fourth Industrial Revolution, has been characterized as a fusion of the physical, digital and biological worlds, with far-reaching implications for economies and industries, and even humankind. These changes create new opportunities and challenges for policymakers as traditional governance frameworks and models will have to be reconsidered for a different Read more »

The need for urgent collective action to keep people safe online: Lessons from last week’s cyberattack

- Brad Smith - President and Chief Legal Officer

Early Friday morning the world experienced the year’s latest cyberattack. Starting first in the United Kingdom and Spain, the malicious “WannaCrypt” software quickly spread globally, blocking customers from their data unless they paid a ransom using Bitcoin. The WannaCrypt exploits used in the attack were drawn from the exploits stolen from the National Security Agency, or NSA, in the United States. That theft was publicly reported earlier this year. A Read more »

Microsoft appoints globally respected regulator to privacy leadership role

- Microsoft Corporate Blogs
Julie Brill

Microsoft announced today that Julie Brill, former Commissioner of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), will join Microsoft to lead privacy, data protection and other regulatory issues as head of its Privacy and Regulatory Affairs Group. Brill will join as corporate vice president and deputy general counsel for Privacy and Regulatory Affairs. She will report directly to Brad Smith, Microsoft’s president and chief legal officer. “Cloud computing, big data and Read more »

Microsoft selects 15 US teens for inaugural Council for Digital Good

- Jacqueline Beauchere - Microsoft Chief Online Safety Officer
Illustration of laurel branches with computer power on button in the center

It’s official: selections have been made for Microsoft’s inaugural Council for Digital Good! We are eager to welcome 15 teens from across the U.S. to our Redmond, Washington, campus in early August for our first council summit. In January, we announced we were accepting applications for a one-year pilot program for young people ages 13 to 17 to help lay the groundwork for a new approach to online interactions, and Read more »

Sharing our journey to help customers comply with the EU’s GDPR at IAPP Global Privacy Summit

- John Payseno - Assistant General Counsel

At Microsoft, we work every day to earn our customers’ trust by building cloud services that meet the highest standards for security, privacy, compliance and transparency. During the recent 2017 International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) Global Privacy Summit in Washington, D.C., we spoke with customers and partners about the opportunities and challenges they’re tackling, and listened to what they’d like Microsoft to focus on to help them achieve their Read more »

A street-level look at an innovative data-driven partnership

- Elizabeth L. Grossman - Director of Civic Projects, Technology & Civic Engagement
Traffic volume map for part of Seattle

Cities are gathering hubs for commerce and community, with people crisscrossing them for work, errands, entertainment and family.  Since the first car/horse interaction, enabling these interlocking, overlapping trajectories to occur safely throughout a city has been a challenge. In the 21st century, the ongoing consequences of this challenge drove an international response called Vision Zero which hopes to end traffic deaths and serious injuries by 2030. But the factors that Read more »