6 ms·

Microsoft refuses to divulge data flows to Police Scotland

25 points by xrayarx 1y ago

wtcactus 1y ago
Well, it’s weird to say this, but good for Microsoft. The UK is turning into an Orwellian state.
- Smar 1y ago
  Elder brother is again showing the way to younger brother.
matt-p 1y ago
This is basically we can't country restrict O365 storage/processing isn't it. We can spin up a custom instance for a huge amount of money effort (e.g govcloud) but off the shelf it goes wherever there's free space or similar?
like_any_other 1y ago
Good? Law enforcement shouldn't be relying on pinky-promises of foreign corporations that they'll keep information confidential anyway, so if this keeps them from using MS SaaS, all the better. That this will force Scotland to develop enough native IT expertise to replace these services (which may one day grow into a viable business) is just an added bonus.
- matt-p 1y ago
  Scotland has less than a tenth of the population of England, and 0 cloud regions. Around ~70,000 workers in IT/Tech and only two or three real colo datacentres of any note (>140 racks).
  - like_any_other 1y ago
    What they need is the functional equivalent of a basement with filing cabinets. And used to be just that. Countries of any size should do this in-house. I cannot overemphasize how bad an idea outsourcing police records is. And did we forget computers were supposed to make paperwork easier? And now just storing the paperwork requires a foreign multinational company.
    - matt-p 1y ago
      I agree, 5-10 years ago businesses would have a RAID 5 server in a closet backing up to azure. Even that would be a big step up from office 365
jon-wood 1y ago
Is it just me or this a non-story? Police Scotland (rightly, and apparently thoroughly) did due diligence on whether O365 is suitable for their use case, and Microsoft (rightly) told them no it’s not. And yet somehow there’s a Lib Dem peer saying we need “UK Cloud capability” as if it’s some sort of nuclear arsenal rather than software running in data centres.
- matt-p 1y ago
  In all fairness, I don't see how they're wrong in saying we need a UK Cloud Capability even if phrased 'as if it’s some sort of nuclear arsenal'. It is actually quite problematic that falling out with Microsoft would mean the entire country grounding to a halt at best.
BizarroLand 1y ago
What world are we living in where companies get to tell governments to piss off?

25 points by xrayarx 1y ago

wtcactus 1y ago

Well, it’s weird to say this, but good for Microsoft. The UK is turning into an Orwellian state.

Smar 1y ago
Elder brother is again showing the way to younger brother.

matt-p 1y ago

This is basically we can't country restrict O365 storage/processing isn't it. We can spin up a custom instance for a huge amount of money effort (e.g govcloud) but off the shelf it goes wherever there's free space or similar?

like_any_other 1y ago

Good? Law enforcement shouldn't be relying on pinky-promises of foreign corporations that they'll keep information confidential anyway, so if this keeps them from using MS SaaS, all the better. That this will force Scotland to develop enough native IT expertise to replace these services (which may one day grow into a viable business) is just an added bonus.

matt-p 1y ago
Scotland has less than a tenth of the population of England, and 0 cloud regions. Around ~70,000 workers in IT/Tech and only two or three real colo datacentres of any note (>140 racks).
- like_any_other 1y ago
  What they need is the functional equivalent of a basement with filing cabinets. And used to be just that. Countries of any size should do this in-house. I cannot overemphasize how bad an idea outsourcing police records is. And did we forget computers were supposed to make paperwork easier? And now just storing the paperwork requires a foreign multinational company.
  - matt-p 1y ago
    I agree, 5-10 years ago businesses would have a RAID 5 server in a closet backing up to azure. Even that would be a big step up from office 365

jon-wood 1y ago

Is it just me or this a non-story? Police Scotland (rightly, and apparently thoroughly) did due diligence on whether O365 is suitable for their use case, and Microsoft (rightly) told them no it’s not. And yet somehow there’s a Lib Dem peer saying we need “UK Cloud capability” as if it’s some sort of nuclear arsenal rather than software running in data centres.

matt-p 1y ago
In all fairness, I don't see how they're wrong in saying we need a UK Cloud Capability even if phrased 'as if it’s some sort of nuclear arsenal'. It is actually quite problematic that falling out with Microsoft would mean the entire country grounding to a halt at best.

BizarroLand 1y ago

What world are we living in where companies get to tell governments to piss off?