In a recent interview with Fox News, legendary Microsoft founder Bill Gates said that government should increase their scrutiny over how tech companies go about their business. Gates was commenting about the need to better protect the sensitive personal data that tech companies like Google, Facebook, and Amazon were gathering on their users.
Microsoft itself has been hit by stiffer EU data protection standards under the GDPR. The company said it will update its security policies concerning the data it collects from private emails before April 2019.
More on the Gates interview in this excerpt from the Financial Express:
Gates told Fox News in an interview that the legislators in the US, as well in other countries, should formulate more effective and stringent regulation on how far the tech companies can go. He is of the opinion that regulation on major tech companies in the US “makes a lot of sense.” He added, “The government should be talking to these companies about what they do.” Interestingly, Gates himself testified in Congress back in 1998 over Microsoft’s policy and extent of power after it was dragged into an antitrust lawsuit lodged by US Department of Justice.
But now he is vocal about how this practice is fair and tech companies need to comply with the privacy regulations. He told in the interview that the tech companies should work with Congress. He added flair to his opinion by sharing his memories of his early days at Microsoft. “I was naive; I didn’t have an office in Washington, D.C. I thought that was a good thing and I even bragged about it,” Gates told Fox News. He added that he later regretted that attitude and now hopes that “these guys” are learning better.
