Microsoft data centres: the key to internet security?

On Wednesday, Microsoft said it was creating two data centres in Germany. Crucially, it believes that it has secured legal and technical arrangements to put the information housed there beyond the reach of US government surveillance.

The new facilities are under the control of T-Systems, a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom, the German telecommunications group. T-Systems will be the “data trustee” and will own the physical buildings, though both companies will contribute “significant capital” to build the centres.

Microsoft said its employees will not be able to access the data held there without explicit permission from the German company. That is critical because even though Deutsche Telekom has sizeable operations in the US, as a non-American company it is not legally subject to the same US data sharing rules...

with Stefan Heumann (Program Director "European Digital Agenda")