Microsoft is opening a data center in Germany to ward off nosy US government agencies

US Tech companies are in constant legal combat with the federal government and its need to pry into foreign-held data. Following Edward Snowden’s exposure of NSA spying tactics, companies like Microsoft and Google struggle to retain foreign customer trust amidst the American government’s demand for privileged access.

The latest steps taken to protect their European customers from US surveillance is the opening of new Microsoft data centers in Germany, scheduled to take place later in 2016 and be operated by a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom.

This struggle is most recently embodied in an ongoing legal battle between the New York court and Microsoft, in which US authorities demanded access to a US citizen’s emails that are stored in Ireland. Although this particular case may sway in favor of law enforcement, opening new data centers in places like Germany, with its strict data-protection laws, may provide a stronger deterrent in the future. Establishing a German company as the data custodian will force information directed toward German authorities.

The strategy resembles Apple’s use of built-in unbreakable encryption as a means of eliminating one of the options that the government can be pursue. Whether the data center migration truly fulfills its purpose remains to be seen; one of items highlighted by the Snowden revelation suggested that many local spy agencies continue to funnel European citizens’ data to the NSA. Despite Microsoft’s confidence in German servers, the new arrangement has not yet been tested in the court system, suggested Forrester analyst Paul Miller.

Assuming the “German trustee” model is successful, then customers of other cloud computing platforms may demand similar privileges. The financial times reports that the EU Court of Justice nulled a Safe Harbor treaty that permitted US companies to send data on European citizens back to America, but now that renegotiations are underway, it’s likely that the Microsoft data center talk may seep into conversation.

Source: The Verge and Financial Times