Microsoft has announced that they now offer customers in foreign countries the option of having their data stored in data centres that are exclusively outside of US borders. The move is the first of its kind from any of the major hosting companies and will more than likely be followed in weeks to come by its competitors like Amazon.

The revelations in June last year of the NSA’s immense collection and analysis operation not only has implications for the privacy of individuals but also for companies who have data hosted by at data centres based in the US. Most of the world’s largest internet companies, including  Microsoft, Yahoo!, Google, Facebook, YouTube, AOL, Skype and Apple, have data centers in the US which, according to the leaked documents from whistle-blower Edward Snowden, the NSA is able to access through its PRISM program.

At the end of July last year the Cloud Security Alliance released stats showing that one in 10 customers from outside the US has cancelled a hosting contract with companies inside the US in the wake of the PRISM revelations. Moving data outside of the US is one way that companies can avoid the prying eyes of PRISM but it may not be enough considering the fact that the NSA and Britain’s GCHQ have a system in place called ‘MUSCULAR‘ which can apparently access the main communications links that connect Yahoo and Google data centres around the world.

The heads of AOL, Apple, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Twitter, Yahoo! have joined forces to form the Reform Government Surveillance group, an alliance aimed at changing the was that internet users are being spied on. Microsoft’s head lawyer Brad Smith (General Counsel and Executive Vice President, Legal and Corporate Affairs) still owns the most succinct quote explaining the harm done by PRISM and what needs to be done to remedy it:

“People won’t use technology they don’t trust. Governments have put this trust at risk, and governments need to help restore it.”

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