Washington: The elections in India were monitored along with the collaboration with Microsoft and Indian officials. The monitoring was done at polling booths, an official of the global tech giant has disclosed, while asserting that the company is transparent about the collection of data run on its platforms.
The official from the company also said that the privacy policies of the IT giant helped customers keep their data private and under their control.
“Election officials in India have used our productivity and Cloud platforms for collaboration and running the election process, including monitoring of activities at polling booths. Our customers – the respective government departments – own all data relating to the processes they run on our platforms,” a Microsoft spokesperson told News Agencies.
But information about the election was not disclosed by Microsoft in which it collaborated with the Indian officials.
In the recent disclosure of the controversy involving Facebook and Cambridge Analytica, there are many questions being raised for about the privacy concerns in IT Giants. The response from Microsoft was in response to a question over its policy regarding third-party use of data, privacy and data protection.
The representative from the Microsoft said that the company was transparent about data collection and empowers users to make informed decisions.
“We make our policies and practices clear and accessible to everyone,” the official said.
The research lab of the Washington-based company headed by Indian-American Satya Nadella also asserted in a statement by saying the policies include “how we secure data; where we store and manage it; how we delete data; who can access customer data and on what terms; how we respond to government requests on data and how we help customers meet compliance requirements”.
The spokesperson also expressed the fact that the company’s privacy policies and processes will help customers keep their own data private and under control.
“We do not use users’ email, chat, files or other personal content to target marketing activities to them,” the spokesperson said.
Microsoft has said in a blog that Cloud computing had changed the equation of privacy between the state and its citizens.
No longer would an individual or company can come to know about when the government was searching its information. And without that knowledge of the search, individuals and companies lacked the ability to protect their rights, it said.
The company has already filed four lawsuit against the US Government due to its alleged interference in privacy matters and data protection, particularly for search warrants.
“Law enforcement needs to be effective and privacy rights need to be protected. This journey is not yet complete, and we look forward to continuing to work with so many others to see it to a successful conclusion,” it said.
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