Brad Smith, executive vice president and general counsel to Microsoft, has cast his company's lot in with others who are calling for reform in government-sanctioned surveillance.
More specifically, he had harsh words to say about the United States' secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, an agency that most Americans probably don't know exists.
The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court reviews applications and appeals about data gathered in the name of national security, but the government argues that the sensitive nature of the data it reviews necessitates that it operate in secret. Smith called out the court in a speech on June 25, saying that it's not accountable to the public, and therefore "not inclined to promote justice."
Smith argued that the surveillance court gets to function in ways unlike all other courts, invoking national security to write laws that "the American public is not permitted to read." How can anything in this court get a fair trial if only one side of every story is ever presented? "It's hard to be litigant before this court," said Smith, referring to occasions when he himself had attempted to seek legal action regarding the U.S. data mining efforts. "Do we not deserve at least the right to read what the government is arguing?"
Smith's speech is just the latest development in a long windfall that began with Edward Snowden's revelations about the National Security Agency's privacy-violating activities. Microsoft is one of many lobbying Congress for change on the issue, with Smith urging the Senate to pass a bill (already passed in the House) that would put new limits on the personal data that the government can collect. As an example of the government's abuse of its data-collecting power, Smith pointed to a 2013 report claiming the NSA had intercepted private data traveling through the cloud without seeking permission from Microsoft and the other tech companies who own those data centers.
"I want law enforcement to do its job in an effective way pursuant to the rule of law," said Smith in his speech. "If we can't get to that world, then law enforcement is going to have a bleak future." He went on to compare the current state of affairs to the lawless days of the "Wild West."
In early 2014, the Obama administration put forth a proposal that would create a group of court advocates that would advise the surveillance court on significant cases related to privacy. Congress has yet to implement Obama's plan, which some have described as too vague to do any real good.
