Cloud companies have to act on privacy, even if the government won’t

Most of the laws governing data privacy and security in the US are nearly 30 years old, Microsoft general counsel Brad Smith said -- but with gridlock in Congress, that may not get better any time soon.

Private companies have to step up and make sure that customers’ data is secure, Smith said.

“We’re living in a time when Congress doesn’t get much done,” he said, but acknowledged that data privacy issues are also uniquely complex, making it more difficult for lawmakers to act on them. “It’s technically complex, it’s legally complex” and it involves two equally important values -- privacy and public safety.