Office 365 declared illegal in German schools due to privacy risks - no way for the German government to monitor cloud access by US authorities

This time around, the Hessian commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information (HBDI) isn't just saying that schools would prefer not to use Microsoft, he's stating that their use of Office 365 is outright illegal. In August 2017, the HBDI ruled that Office 365 could legally be used by schools so long as the back end for the school accounts was stored in Microsoft's German-located cloud. A year later, Microsoft closed its German cloud datacenter, and schools migrated their accounts to the European cloud. Now, the HBDI states that the European cloud may offer access to US authorities; with no way for the German government to monitor such access; this makes use of that cloud illegal without specific consent being granted by its individual users.

In addition to the physical geography of the cloud, the HBDI is unhappy about telemetry in both Office 365 and Windows 10 itself. Neither can be disabled by end users or organizations, and the content of both remains undisclosed by Microsoft despite repeated inquiries. According to the HBDI, the only legal way around the murky provenance of the telemetry—and possible US state access to users' data—is by asking consent of the individual users.

See #^https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/07/germany-threatens-to-break-up-with-microsoft-office-again/

#office365 #security
#^Office 365 declared illegal in German schools due to privacy risks

Microsoft's future in Germany is in question again.

source https://gadgeteer.co.za/node/3356