Tools and Weapons
Insider account by Microsoft's president on tech policy and regulation.
Summary
Smith is Microsoft's president and chief legal officer, and this book covers the policy questions technology companies face, drawing on Microsoft's own experience as a defendant and as a participant.
The substantive chapters cover the 2013 Snowden disclosures and Microsoft's response, including its litigation against the United States government over secrecy orders and over data stored in Ireland; the argument for a digital Geneva convention constraining state cyberattacks, prompted by WannaCry and NotPetya; facial recognition, where Smith called for regulation before the technology was widely deployed and while Microsoft was selling it; privacy regulation including his support for the European General Data Protection Regulation; the concentration of technology employment and the resulting housing and inequality problems, with Microsoft's Seattle-area housing commitment as the response; rural broadband; and the relationship between American and Chinese technology sectors.
Smith's recurring position is that technology companies should accept regulation rather than resist it, that self-regulation is insufficient, and that a company selling a technology has an obligation to state where it should not be used.
The book is corporate advocacy written by a serving executive, and Microsoft's own history as an antitrust defendant and its current market position shape every argument. Smith uses the antitrust experience to argue for engagement rather than confrontation with regulators, which is also commercially convenient for a company whose competitors face antitrust pressure. The policy positions are stated clearly and are worth engaging with. Readers should note that a company advocating regulation it can afford to comply with is not necessarily acting against its interests.
Key takeaways 8
- Technology companies should accept and shape regulation rather than resist it, which Smith argues from Microsoft's own antitrust experience.
- Self-regulation is insufficient for technologies with substantial social consequences, and companies claiming otherwise are avoiding the question.
- Microsoft litigated against the United States government over secrecy orders and over the jurisdiction of data stored abroad, which established limits on both.
- A company selling a technology has an obligation to state publicly where it should not be used, which Smith did regarding facial recognition.
- State-developed cyberweapons escape and are used against civilians, which WannaCry and NotPetya demonstrated using leaked exploits.
- Data sovereignty questions arise because data is stored in jurisdictions unrelated to where its subjects live, which existing law did not anticipate.
- Technology employment concentration produces housing and inequality problems in the regions that host it, which companies contribute to and can partly address.
- The book is corporate advocacy by a serving executive, and regulation a large incumbent can afford may disadvantage its smaller competitors.
Who should read it
Founders and investors in regulated technology sectors who want a large incumbent's stated policy positions, read with its commercial interests in view.
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