In "The collapse of the U.S.-EU Safe Harbor: Solving the new privacy Rubik's Cube," Microsoft's Brad Smith provides insight on ways to ensure European consumers and enterprises can continue using data services in the manner they chose and from the best providers of such services. In today's world, it is a well-known policy truism that technology will advance much more quickly than tech-related law and that regulations can hobble both innovation and the economy. While we need to address immediate issues to address the collapse of the Safe Harbor, our future and the policy decisions which shape it require enduring and sustainable solutions.
Today, we have the opportunity to improve citizens' lives, businesses and governments by creating a long term framework to ensure that privacy is fully respected while permitting new software technology to thrive. These solutions must be global and crafted to better fit the digital world in which we live. A failure to embrace this opportunity is a failure for us all.
History teaches us that resistance to change is a perennial challenge. Yet governments are presented with the opportunity to overcome current roadblocks and challenges by using a far-reaching lens, one which will help craft a future with a truly sustainable path. Such a thing can be done, and we should embrace this historic moment.