Chairman Bill Gates criticized U.S. policies on data privacy and immigration Friday in a speech to the Transforming India through Technology conference in New Delhi, India.

Microsoft will work with India on a national computer identity-card project, he said. He plans to meet with minister Nandan Nilekani, who helped build technology company Infosys.

Gates said the U.S. should have a national identity card or at least let some businesses, like health care, centralize information on individuals. “It has always come back to the idea that ‘The computer knows too much about you,'” he said.

He noted that doctors cannot share records about patients and said a U.S. ban on virtual doctor visits “wastes a lot of money.”

Gates also urged U.S. immigration exceptions for “smart people.” He said Microsoft has created “a lot of jobs” in Canada because immigrants are allowed to work if offered a high-paying job.

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Bradford Smith, General Counsel for Microsoft Corp., responded to Sen. Charles Grassley’s request for more information about the company’s plans to eliminate up to 5,000 jobs over the next 18 months.

Highlights of the letter include Smith’s statement that the lay-offs planned by Microsoft will occur here in the U.S. and throughout the world, with the largest amount of lay-offs occurring in Washington State (where the largest amount of Microsoft employees work). Smith reiterated that lay-offs would affect U.S. and non-U.S. citizens alike and employees inside the U.S. and throughout the world.

In addition, in his letter, he reinforced Microsoft’s belief and support in the H-1B program and the importance of companies like Microsoft being able to continue recruiting exceptional talent from throughout the world:

“H1-B employees have always accounted for less than 15 percent of Microsoft’s U.S. workforce, the level that is used in immigration law to determine whether a company is “H-1B dependent.” Nonetheless, the ability to tap into the world’s best minds has long been essential to our success. Although they are a small percentage of our workforce, H-1B workers have long made crucial contributions to Microsoft’s innovation successes and to our ability to help create jobs in this country. We are confident this will continue to be true in the future.”

Smith also commented in his letter that Microsoft does not plan to reduce significantly the proportion of H-1B employees in its workforce after this planned lay-off of 5,000 employees.

The full text of Smith’s response can be read online here.

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