Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella says data privacy should be seen as human right

Microsoft Corp’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Satya Nadella said that data privacy must be seen as a human right and called for full transparency at the World Economic Forum Annual Summit in Davos. In conversation with Klaus Schwab, Executive Chairman and Founder of the WEF, Nadella said data dignity is crucial and next level of work is not just privacy but one should be able to control the way it is used.

The 52-year-old business executive commented days after Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai had opined that artificial intelligence (AI) needs to be regulated. When asked about a possible bifurcation of the economy and technology between China and the US, Nadella said that every country cares about their national security and he would urge everyone to think about what should happen.

"If we should 'consciously decouple', all we will do is increase the overall transactional costs of our economy,” said Nadella.

"The last 30-year period has been an amazing period of market access, but we need to grow up because the world is more complicated,” he added.

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Concerns over US-China relations

On January 22, Nadella had raised concerns about the lack of trust between the United States and China affecting economic growth. At the WEF Summit, he said that the US and China need to reconcile rather than create separate supply chains for every country.

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Nadella was a little apprehensive about the significance of US-China ‘phase one’ trade deal terming it ‘insufficient’. He also commented on Trump administration’s plan to restrict 5G operations of Huawei and pressurising other countries to do the same. In November, the United States had urged Canada not to use Huawei 5G technology citing security threats and said that it would jeopardise intelligence sharing between the two countries. Nadella said that countries need to realise that they will benefit more from a unified internet system rather than a bifurcated one.

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