ICC ditches Microsoft 365 for openDesk

Post by booi » Thu, Nov 06, 2025, 8:13 PM UTC

Johnny555 wrote: post #54

bawolff wrote: post #16

I think the bigger question is why they were using microsoft products in the first place. USA has been very hostile to the ICC under trump, but its not exactly a huge shift, bush was also incredibly hostile. It seems borderline incompetent to use a microsoft cloud offering given the political situation. Not to mention given the type of work they do, seems like hosting stuff off site at all is a bad plan.

The same reason most organizations use it -- inertia and because it's been the standard for so long, it's the best at what it does. The startup I used to work at was exclusively on OSX + GoogleDocs, when we were small, but as we grew (and especially when the Finance team grew) more and more employees found a need for the MS Office Suite as well as apps that only run on Windows, so they started rolling out Windows VM'…

Post by KaiserPro » Thu, Nov 06, 2025, 8:13 PM UTC

whatever1 wrote: post #102

vincvinc wrote: post #52

Related: "IMPOSING SANCTIONS ON THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT" (white house, feb 2025) https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/02/impo... Microsoft admits in French court it can't keep EU data safe from US authorities (jul 2025) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45822902

I don’t understand why this is the case though. Could MS create a new EU based company in which it just owns shares ? Or is the US cloud act so wide that they can demand data from all the companies a us based company has equity in?

Post by whatever1 » Thu, Nov 06, 2025, 8:19 PM UTC

XorNot wrote: post #112

shiandow wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd be surprised if this isn't already the case. The extent to which you can do business in the EU without legal presence is limited. It is not a huge amount of protection though. I mean we've already established that selling to 'terrorists' can be sanctioned even when selling through an intermediary. So what's stopping the US from ordering Microsoft to stop selling licenses to the ICC? And then we've not touched on…

It's not about having a subsidiary, it's about the technical structure of 365 meaning Microsoft US has access to Microsoft EU servers and thus US employees can be compelled to follow US court orders. They simply don't separate the infrastructure this way AFAIK.

Post by ahi » Thu, Nov 06, 2025, 8:22 PM UTC

whatever1 wrote: post #106

NoboruWataya wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

MSFT already operates in Europe via subsidiaries for a whole host of reasons. But hiving certain assets off in a subsidiary is very rarely effective to avoid laws and regulations that apply to the parent. The parent controls the subsidiary so a court or regulator having jurisdiction over the parent could order it to get what it needs from the subsidiary. This is particularly so in the US, which is kind of known for e…

So let’s say I am eu citizen I own a data center company in Brussels. I sell 1 stock to MS USA. Can they at any point demand all my data ?

Post by pureagave » Thu, Nov 06, 2025, 8:23 PM UTC

KaiserPro wrote: post #109

yupyupyups wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Microsoft admits in French court it can't keep EU data safe from US authorities Snowden leaked that fact before Microsoft made the admission. But it's good that it's coming from them officially nonetheless.

Theres a difference between as an intelligence organisation having access to data, and "someone in power is angry because they watched a TV advert, I want to see what they know" but, your over all picture is still, sadly correct.