After Microsoft's CEO, Satya Nadella, attended Presidential-popular-vote-loser Donald Trump's "tech summit," this week, the company is making it clear that it will not help Trump create a registry of Muslim Americans.
In response to questions from BuzzFeed News, Microsoft spokesperson Frank X. Shaw clarified his company’s position on the use of customer data. “We’ve been clear about our values. We oppose discrimination and we wouldn’t do any work to build a registry of Muslim Americans,” said Shaw. […]
Microsoft initially declined to comment on hypotheticals when BuzzFeed News asked earlier this week, pointing instead to a blog post by Microsoft’s president and chief legal officer Brad Smith written the day after the presidential election. The company goes into more detail about its principles and policies related to law enforcement and national security requests in its digital trust report. […]
Microsoft has sued the government four times recently to challenge requests for information and Microsoft’s ability to be transparent about those requests. One lawsuit challenged a nondisclosure order attached to a national security letter. The case resulted in the government withdrawing the letter. In 2013, documents leaked by Edward Snowden showed that Microsoft collaborated with US intelligence services to allow access to communication from users as part of a top secret program called PRISM.
This follows the lead of tech workers flocking to sign a pledge to refuse to work on a registry, including Microsoft employees. The "never again" pledge had amassed more than 1,300 signatures, as of Thursday afternoon. They pledge to "refuse to participate in the creation of databases of identifying information for the United States government to target individuals based on race, religion, or national origin." That's a very good start.