During the Day 3 Vision Keynote at Microsoft's recently completed Worldwide Partner Conference we had the chance to hear from Brad Smith, the Executive Vice President and General Counsel, Legal and Corporate Affairs for Microsoft.
As the company's lawyer, he has been at the forefront of several legal cases concerning access to customer data and the protection of that data no matter where it is stored.
Although he was apparently a first time speaker at the Worldwide Partner Conference there was no evidence of any unease to me as he stepped through the cases the company has seen over the last several months relating to making data available to law enforcement.
It was a very good way to start a keynote session that was focused on building up and cheerleading the partners in attendance because Microsoft needs its partners, who are on the front lines of interacting with customers and at times law enforcement, to take the lead in these situations.
Towards the end of his talk, Smith encouraged Microsoft's partners to take the steps necessary to protect customer data and to defend these protections in countries around the world.
Here is the 30 minute presentation during his segment of the keynote:
