You've probably had one or two thoughts about politics lately.
It's that time of year. The light begins to disappear, both outside your door and inside the eyes of tired, nonsense-peddling politicians.
Perhaps this is what led Microsoft[1] to fully express its own indignation at US politicians' inability to do what more than 130 other countries have already managed -- enact a digital privacy law or two.
Last week, I offered the words of Julie Brill, Microsoft's corporate vice-president for Global Privacy and Regulatory Affairs and chief privacy officer. (Her business card is 12 inches wide.)
She expressed[2] Redmond's frustration that the US is so far behind in doing the right thing. She said: "In contrast to the role our country has traditionally played on global issues, the US is not leading, or even participating in, the discussion over common privacy norms."
Ultimately, however, Brill said the company's research showed people want business to take responsibility, rather than government.
Which some might think humorous, given how tech companies -- Microsoft very much included -- have treated privacy, and tech regulation in general, as the laughable burp of a constantly acquisitive society.
I wondered, though, what other companies really thought about all this.
In an attack of serendipity that I hope didn't come from snooping around my laptop, new research asking those sorts of questions was just published.
Snow Software[3], a self-described "technology intelligence platform" -- you're nothing if you're not a platform -- talked to 1,000 IT leaders and 3,000 employees from around the world.
This was all in the cause of the company's annual IT Priorities Report[4].
I hope Brill and her team at Microsoft are sitting down as they