If you follow the discussion in Germany, there are 2 main arguments brought up by proponents of Microsoft's cloud offerings: 1. The kids should learn the tools

If you follow the discussion in Germany, there are 2 main arguments brought up by proponents of Microsoft's cloud offerings: 1. The kids should learn the tools they will later use in their jobs anyways. 2. The idea that Microsoft or some US agency would want to read the kid's data is laughable. Obviously, argument is and always has been BS in the fast-paced world of IT solutions. (Imagine the same argument from 10 years ago, no one in a typical business used cloud services back then). But ironically, it implies that the person making this argument does work with Microsoft cloud technology and thus implicitly hands all their oh-so-important trade and business secrets willingly to the US company. And of course this access is being used for industrial and other espionage. But even if the USA would, for some inexplicable reason, not chose to gain that competitive edge, the data of kids from school is valuable in itself. I can envision a tool that cross-checks a CV, or evaluates a kid's college prospects. The access doesn't even need to leave the US, so what's the EU or anyone else going to do? What was that note that Mrs. Smith put in your file about the firecrackers and the girl's bathroom? Whoops, there goes your admission to Stanford. Did you write in an essay in tenth grade that you sympathize with the Palestinians? Entry denied for your trip to Israel. Did you use a copyrighted font for your art project? There comes the bill.