&gt;  Data hosted in Germany won&#x27;t be accessible to Microsoft US nor the US government.<p>How do we know? Is Microsoft planning to release the source code?<p>&gt; If the German government can access that data so what? Do you really expect to escape from that?<p>Yes.<p>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.<p>Keep in mind this is basically just a promise from Microsoft that they&#x27;ll keep your data in your country, so it&#x27;s only as good as Microsoft&#x27;s willingness and ability to keep that promise. If you trust it it&#x27;s a step forward, but Microsoft is far from being worthy of that trust, so it&#x27;s a <i>very small</i> step forward, so small it&#x27;s barely worth talking about.