Microsoft To Allow Foreign Customers To Have Data Stored On Servers Outside The US To Protect From NSA And Others

In an interview to Financial Times, Brad Smith, general counsel of Microsoft revealed that Microsoft will allow its foreign customers to store their data outside the US to protect it from illegal invasion of US government agencies like NSA and others. Even though many other tech companies are opposing this idea, Brad Smith feels that this has become a necessity following leaks that showed the US NSA had been monitoring the data of foreign citizens from Brazil to across the EU.

“People should have the ability to know whether their data are being subjected to the laws and access of governments in some other country and should have the ability to make an informed choice of where their data resides,” he told the FT.

“Our entire industry is concerned that some customers outside the US are feeling less confident with [American] online services today,” Mr Smith said. “Technology today requires that people have a high degree of trust in the services they are using?.?.?.?The events of the last year undermine some of that trust [and] that is one of the reasons new steps are needed to address it.”

Brad urged governments to update their international agreements on how they will treat mutual data for legal purposes. Read more about it from the link below.

Source: Financial Times