Former Microsoft Privacy Director Now Trusts Only Open Source Software

From 2002 to 2011, Caspar Bowden held the position of Chief Privacy Advisor at Microsoft and was responsible for this area in more than 40 countries. He probably had to collaborate with the NSA and other government organizations, although Bowden says he never heard of the PRISM program.

Nevertheless, many years of work at Microsoft have led to the fact that now the former top manager of the corporation basically uses only open source software . He says that he cannot trust the program until he sees its source code. In addition, two years ago, Bowden refused to use a mobile phone.

A week ago, Caspar Bowden testified in the European Parliament about the NSA surveillance of citizens. He also publishedreport (pdf) on population surveillance programs (PRISM) and the Foreign Intelligence Act (FISA) and their impact on the fundamental rights of EU citizens.


Protest rally in Berlin

Among other things, Bowden expressed such an idea about the influence of the very fact of the presence of total surveillance: “Society should think about this. Every public person, every influential person in the government, in business or in the state - everyone now wonders: what does the NSA know about it? And how can society trust the decisions of these people, their objectivity? How can we know for sure that they have not changed some of their decisions to protect their careers? This is a blow to every element of a representative management system. ”

Caspar Bowden now works as an independent researcher, and in the report he collected all the information that could be found on this issue, and also conducted a legal analysis of the actions of American intelligence. Video recording of his speech in the European Parliament with answers to questions from parliamentarians see here (63 minutes).