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back to article Microsoft boffins: Now even LAWYERS can grok Bing code's privacy compliance

Boffins at Microsoft Research have devised a way to automatically check code for compliance with privacy laws – and, according to Redmond, it's so simple that even non-techies can use it successfully. Microsoft Research (MSR) has developed a programming language called Legalease, to be used together with its data inventory …

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  1. Psmo

    YANLRS

    Yet another 'natural' language rule system ? I'm afraid I've not seen one that wasn't over-hyped and underpowered that wasn't nearly as complex as a Turing-complete scripting language and needing an extra debugging and optimisation stage by a 'real' coder afterwards.

    Still, at least this one looks like it can rely on more formalised grammar and do cross-checking on uniformity, and if used across the development park this could be useful, although with the amount of work needed to integrate this I can't see this happening without SOX-style regulation.

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    1. BlueGreen
      Reply Icon

      Re: YANLRS @Psmo

      > Yet another 'natural' language rule system ?

      No. Open the linked pdf and spend 3 minutes browsing. If that's too much effort, look just at the example on P14.

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  2. All names Taken
    Alien

    It also looks like a decent application of mathematical logic but the problem might be the validity or construction of permissible action?

    (Barber or Seville and all that, ... I can't say "no" ... that demonstrates the illogical and contralogical nature of humankinds humanity?)

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  3. Roger Greenwood

    Grok?

    Is that word not copyrighted?

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    1. Robert Carnegie Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: Grok?

      According to novel [Stranger In A Strange Land] (1961), "grok" is a Martian word. According to dictionary.reference.com it means "to understand thoroughly and intuitively", but in the book it isn't quite translatable. A word typically can't be copyrighted - maybe a really, really long one in German - but it can be a trademark, or several trademarks at once.

      In comparison, "UPS" represents a particular courier company (trademark, I assume) and "uninterruptible power supply" for your computer.

      Anyway, I was sort of assuming that this entire post is a joke, but a joke that exists in Microsoft's documentation. An easter-egg, as they're called.

      On the other hand, it could be both that and Microsoft's lawyers really taking control of the word "grok". So that the Groklaw web site, which appears to still exist as an apocalyptic snapshot of when it stopped updating, and of everything that was exposed up to then, can be takedowned. While the lawyers laugh at the joke.

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  4. Gene Cash Silver badge

    no wonder bing sucks

    "more than 20 per cent of the code in Bing changes on a daily basis, with changes made by thousands of programmers"

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    1. The Mole
      Reply Icon

      Re: no wonder bing sucks

      Even if we give the benefit of the doubt and assume that they are refering to 20% of the components (dll/jar/whatever) changing rather than individual lines of code I still can't imagine what thousands of programmers could actually be doing on Bing. If there really were that many programmers working on it it would either be absolutely amazing and feature rich, or perhaps a complete and utter failing mess as no one could have an overview or architectural view of what was happening on it.

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