Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates Address Privacy Issues

Mark Zuckerberg

Facebook creator and CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Microsoft founder Bill Gates were both in the news yesterday (March 13th) for their statements about privacy amid the controversy over the ongoing revelations from the documents taken by National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden.

Zuckerberg posted a statement on Facebook yesterday calling for the U.S. government to take more measures to respect users' privacy and security, saying, “The U.S. government should be the champion for the Internet, not a threat."

He also revealed, "I’ve called President Obama to express my frustration over the damage the government is creating for all of our future."

Writing that he's "confused and frustrated" by the NSA stories, Zuckerberg said, "When our engineers work tirelessly to improve security, we imagine we’re protecting you against criminals, not our own government."

Bill Gates

Meanwhile, Gates was asked about the issue in a Rolling Stone interview published yesterday while discussing the privacy implications of cloud computing and all the information available.

Gates said, "I actually wish we were having more intense debates about these things," but when asked about Snowden, said, "I think he broke the law, so I certainly wouldn’t characterize him as a hero. If he wanted to raise the issues and stay in the country and engage in civil disobedience or something of that kind, or if he had been careful in terms of what he had released, then it would fit more of the model of ‘Okay, I’m really trying to improve things.’ You won’t find much admiration from me."

Speaking about government surveillance, he said, "There has to be a debate. But the specific techniques they use become unavailable if they’re discussed in detail. So the debate needs to be about the general notion of under what circumstances should they be allowed to do things."