Microsoft Admits No Cloud Data Safe

The other day Microsoft finally admitted that no cloud data is safe from the U.S. Patriot Act in the EU, or anywhere for that matter.

The question put forward:

“Can Microsoft guarantee that EU-stored data, held in EU based datacenters, will not leave the European Economic Area under any circumstances — even under a request by the Patriot Act?”

Frazer explained that, as Microsoft is a U.S.-headquartered company, it has to comply with local laws (the United States, as well as any other location where one of its subsidiary companies is based).

Though he said that “customers would be informed wherever possible”, he could not provide a guarantee that they would be informed — if a gagging order, injunction or U.S. National Security Letter permits it.

He said: “Microsoft cannot provide those guarantees. Neither can any other company“.

While it has been suspected for some time, this is the first time Microsoft, or any other company, has given this answer.

Link to story on ZDNet.

So what does this mean? Essentially anyone anywhere in the world that uses the web services of a U.S. company, even if the data centers are housed outside the U.S., can have their data stolen and examined by the U.S. government for any reason at all whatsoever. In my opinion, the U.S. is reaching a bit too far beyond their borders more and more every day. I wonder how various foreign governments will respond to this? Will they ban these U.S. based companies from operating within their country for fear of their citizen's data being compromised? I think it's possible.

Doesn;t surprise me a bit..online storage always seemed like a bad idea.When large external drives available cheap why even think about saving your data on someone else's server.I don't Know just my opinion,seems ridiculous to go that route.Maybe i'm missing something.

it they have to follow local laws then how can the act effect datacenters in theEU?

I think cloud computing is silly.

I figured this would be the case as soon as I heard about Cloud, no surprise really. Of course sheeple don't see any problem with it, even when you bring up legitimate concerns. They usually respond with the classic "I've got nothing to hide." Papers please, papers!

Don't understand why this is news really. Any data you store on a device that is connected to the internet is unsafe, so it just follows that any data permanently on the internet can be stolen.

Only things I'd keep in the cloud is my own music, not my mp3s, but my own music written in ableton - cause I work on stuff every day I have dropbox connected to backup my files in case my PC dies.

reply to post by 547000


The future disagrees, as do computer manufacturers. Harddrive space is going to level off soon - I'd wager we won't see many drives over 500gigs anywhere in a few years time.

Originally posted by yakuzakid
reply to post by 547000

 

The future disagrees, as do computer manufacturers. Harddrive space is going to level off soon - I'd wager we won't see many drives over 500gigs anywhere in a few years time.

Then I won't download big files. And I'm pretty sure I've seen terrabyte sized hard drives too.

The future is retarded if that's the case. We can only hope it's inertia that keeps good old-fashioned offline storage, in the same way Intel architecture is still used despite more efficient processor technology.

BBC's technology show Click has featured the Cloud a lot throughout the year so far and talked about its merits but when it first came up I thought, "well how can they ensure all your data will be protected from being stolen, lost or looked at by unsavoury characters?"

Guess you can't after all.