4 ms·

I'm really surprised by the number of negative comments. Data hosted in Germany won't be accessible to Microsoft US nor the US government. So that's one problem

by dewiz 11y ago

I'm really surprised by the number of negative comments. Data hosted in Germany won't be accessible to Microsoft US nor the US government. So that's one problem solved. If the German government can access that data so what? Do you really expect to escape from that? Keep your data in house if you care about privacy that much. Most of German companies offering services to German customers now can say "your data is stored in your country" thanks to Microsoft. Then if the European government can snoop in, what do you expect MS to do? That's a problem that the German gov needs to address, a government elected by people. And again, no one is forcing you to be "in the cloud". Say what you want, "country clouds" are a step forward and a value some people are willing to pay for.

danieldk 11y ago
Do you really expect to escape from that? Yes. Client-side encryption for cloud storage, end-to-end encryption for instant messaging? Now it does not matter where the servers are. This is just a show to regain customer trust, but the added privacy is marginal.
- qznc 11y ago
  > Client-side encryption for cloud storage, end-to-end encryption for instant messaging? You can have/do that. What is the problem?
- dewiz 11y ago
  It's a positive show :-) Wrt client side encryption, how would you expect MS to run ML/SQL/DocDb/Office on their German servers without reading the data? MS offers some of those products on premise, so that's client side in my view. ie you can run Office, SQL, Service Bus, Skype, Active Directory on your own machines, actually MS still makes most of its income selling software. If there are companies not offering that flexibility those are Google, think Gmail/Docs/Hangout, and Amazon.
- zurn 11y ago
  Encryption does not address the security problems of "cloud" services if your threat model includes eg BND. Traffic/metadata analysis is plenty to find out what you're doing and who you're doing with. Secondly if you distrust the "cloud" service provider, end-to-end encryption for IM/storage is moot if you are still using service provider's client software for X. (This for one microsoft-applicable meaning of "cloud". It baffles me why tech people have so eagerly adopted such an ill-defined marketing term)
soohyung 11y ago
The BND has been working closely with Five Eyes and the NSA especially so it sadly might not make much of a difference after all.
iamsohungry 11y ago
> Data hosted in Germany won't be accessible to Microsoft US nor the US government. How do we know? Is Microsoft planning to release the source code? > If the German government can access that data so what? Do you really expect to escape from that? Yes. I agree with your general point that this is a step forward, but I am also wary that people will perceive this as solving the massive problems we have with securing ourselves from pervasive surveillance. Keep in mind this is basically just a promise from Microsoft that they'll keep your data in your country, so it's only as good as Microsoft's willingness and ability to keep that promise. If you trust it it's a step forward, but Microsoft is far from being worthy of that trust, so it's a very small step forward, so small it's barely worth talking about.

by dewiz 11y ago

danieldk 11y ago

Do you really expect to escape from that? Yes. Client-side encryption for cloud storage, end-to-end encryption for instant messaging? Now it does not matter where the servers are. This is just a show to regain customer trust, but the added privacy is marginal.

qznc 11y ago
> Client-side encryption for cloud storage, end-to-end encryption for instant messaging? You can have/do that. What is the problem?
dewiz 11y ago
It's a positive show :-) Wrt client side encryption, how would you expect MS to run ML/SQL/DocDb/Office on their German servers without reading the data? MS offers some of those products on premise, so that's client side in my view. ie you can run Office, SQL, Service Bus, Skype, Active Directory on your own machines, actually MS still makes most of its income selling software. If there are companies not offering that flexibility those are Google, think Gmail/Docs/Hangout, and Amazon.
zurn 11y ago
Encryption does not address the security problems of "cloud" services if your threat model includes eg BND. Traffic/metadata analysis is plenty to find out what you're doing and who you're doing with. Secondly if you distrust the "cloud" service provider, end-to-end encryption for IM/storage is moot if you are still using service provider's client software for X. (This for one microsoft-applicable meaning of "cloud". It baffles me why tech people have so eagerly adopted such an ill-defined marketing term)

soohyung 11y ago

The BND has been working closely with Five Eyes and the NSA especially so it sadly might not make much of a difference after all.

iamsohungry 11y ago

> Data hosted in Germany won't be accessible to Microsoft US nor the US government. How do we know? Is Microsoft planning to release the source code? > If the German government can access that data so what? Do you really expect to escape from that? Yes. I agree with your general point that this is a step forward, but I am also wary that people will perceive this as solving the massive problems we have with securing ourselves from pervasive surveillance. Keep in mind this is basically just a promise from Microsoft that they'll keep your data in your country, so it's only as good as Microsoft's willingness and ability to keep that promise. If you trust it it's a step forward, but Microsoft is far from being worthy of that trust, so it's a very small step forward, so small it's barely worth talking about.