In response to the fact that the National Security Agency has been monitoring its users, Microsoft has decided to offer those outside the US the option to store their data off of American soil.

Microsoft seems to be the first major company to offer this and it isn’t too surprising, given how vocal they have been over this issue as of late. They’ve been very unhappy with the revelations given to us thanks to Edward Snowden over the fact that the NSA have been spying on American citizens. They are also unhappy with the fact that their own networks have been used to monitor citizens in countries like Brazil and all over Europe as well.

Moving data storage outside of the United States doesn’t guarantee that it’ll be impossible to monitor, but it does offer extra protection. Whether all this is just a show to maintain loyalty with customers outside of the US is yet to be seen. And this still leaves the question open: data will be stored on servers outside the US but how about data in transit, such as when using Microsoft services — will that ever pass through US servers? Who knows.

[via The Verge, image via Titanas’ flickr]