Microsoft Putting Servers In Germany To Keep User Data Away From US Intelligence (techcrunch.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Ever since the Snowden leaks, people and businesses in foreign countries have been wary about hosting sensitive data on U.S. soil for fear intelligence agencies would be able to comb through it at their leisure. Microsoft has announced a plan to combat those worries, saying they will host infrastructure for Azure, Office 365, and Dynamics CRM at data centers in Germany. In addition, the data centers themselves will not be run by Microsoft, but by a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom, which eliminates more legal avenues for U.S. agencies to access the data stored there. "The two data centers will be based in Magdeburg and Frankfurt am Main, with Microsoft stressing this 'data trustee' model means it will not have any access to customer data without the consent of the trustee, and that it cannot therefore be compelled — 'even by a third party' — to hand over customer data."

Comments

Illusion of combat

[Trachman]

This is an illusion of combat of the worries.

When one hand pointed to the physical presence of the servers and told "it is mine", servers were moved, just to defend from the legal argument. Then the other hand pays no attention to the physical location of the data, because, you know, it does not that matter where the data is. If it is online it is accessible to Stasi (or whatever the new name is) which, as we already know, shares with others.

Uhm, I hate to break the bad news

[aaaaaaargh!]

But just today all news sites over Germany reported that the German BND (the direct successor of the Nazi "Organization Gehlen") has been spying on allies, too, including France and German(!) diplomats.

Privacy Theatre

[rmdingler]

It is no more effective than security theatre at the airport...just makes you feel warm and fuzzy having defied the evil Americans.