HYDERABAD: Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella on Friday hoped that in the coming days there will be a set of global rules for data safety and privacy that will help in introducing safe innovations.
Nadella who was talking to IT and Industries minister KT Rama Rao in a fireside chat at BioAsia 2021 on the topic 'Healthcare to Hit Refresh' said, "Going forward, as technology becomes very pervasive in our lives, and our economy, speaking for a company that is building these platforms, we need to take responsibility and ensure that we build for privacy, security, AI ethics and internet safety."
Nadella said one should not wait for regulations when it comes to privacy, security, AI ethics and internet. "We have to, from an engineering and design ethos perspective, build it in into our core. We cannot afford to say we will build it, see what breaks, and fix it. That attitude quite frankly is not tolerated in any another industry and it should not be tolerated in the tech industry."
Nadella was responding to a query put by Rama Rao on privacy while citing an example of the concern he had while giving his 15-year-old son a tracker-enabled shoes. "My son is 15 and I bought him a pair of shoes which has a tracking device. One question that has been bothering all of us is regarding data security. Now, from the government perspective, there are things we can do and we cannot do, particularly in the healthcare sector. How can these be regulated in terms of privacy and data security?" Rama Rao asked.
Touching on the need for regulations, Nadella said, "In privacy today, all over the world there are regulations. Europe was first with GDPR. There will be other regulations. When you use data in healthcare, who is benefiting? Ultimately some patient data is being used and it has to benefit the patient. So I think the value exchange around data, privacy or who is benefiting are all things on which there are going to be rules that are going to be regulated. It's the same with facial recognition and AI ethics."
He added, "So I look forward to a world where like we have food safety laws and drug safety laws, there will be similarly rules and regulations (for data security and privacy)."