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Microsoft Opens Up Azure Cloud in Germany Even It Can't Access (windowsitpro.com)

Reader v3rgEz writes: International customers are becoming increasingly concerned about the U.S.'s data snooping practices, and it appears Microsoft has devised a solution to make them happy: Set up Azure cloud in a foreign region. Because it's under the technical ownership of a German company named Deutsche Telekom, even Microsoft doesn't have access to the data. The move is not surprising, but it could set a precedent that encourages others to move their corporate data away from U.S. shores to countries that take a friendlier view of encryption and data privacy. From the official blog post, "Microsoft has -- in this new model -- no rights at all to access customer data. Only for special purpose like a support call from a customer a temporary access will be granted by the Data Trustee to the Microsoft engineer, and only for the specified area. After that time (using a technology similar to what you might know as JIT) all access is revoked automatically. So to repeat: Access is granted to the Microsoft engineer only by the Data Trustee. Microsoft has no way to grant that access to itself."

1 of 98 comments (clear)

  1. Year of Linux by Howitzer86 · · Score: 5, Funny

    US Government: "We will fine you until you comply with the order giving us access to the servers."
    Microsoft:"Those aren't our servers. We don't have access."
    Government: "Comply or be fined a million dollars a day."
    Microsoft files bankruptcy in AD 3276.

    Thus begins the first Year of Linux on the Desktop.