Microsoft’s former privacy adviser no longer trusts Microsoft because of NSA spying

Caspar Bowden

Caspar Bowden, privacy adviser for Microsoft from 2002-2011, has expressed his concerns over Microsoft after the NSA revelations. The ex-employee who was associated with Microsoft for more than 9 years is not sure whether to trust the company or not.

Bowden had worked for Microsoft’s privacy policy department in 40 countries, except US, and the NSA revelations were a shock for him. Attending a conference in Lausanne, Switzerland; Bowden said that he was quite unaware of the PRISM technology when he was working for Microsoft.

Bowden, who is now an independent privacy advocate, said that he has lost his trust over Microsoft and eventually transitioned himself to use open source softwares, which he can examine himself. In fact he has barred himself from carrying a mobile phone since last two years.

At the conference, he also expressed concerns over how the NSA surveillance is going to influence the decision makers; like top government officials, bureaucrats or business men. Adding more he said that the people living outside US has no legal protection due to such illegal technologies.

Many other voices have also gathered against such popular companies as they’re not sure whether to believe the claims of these companies. As per current headlines, most of the companies like Google, Facebook, etc are making changes to their Privacy Policy. Even some of them have also released information about their involvement in NSA program and what public information they are now sharing with the government.

Bowden has released a briefing on the US National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance programmes (PRISM) and how such activities impact the fundamental rights of citizens. In this briefing he has made a detailed analysis of the practices that can be carried out under US FISA Amendment Act 2008 and how these can bring implications to citizen rights.

[image via YouTube]

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