Re: Sloppy corporate structure. Sloppy security. Sloppy access rights
Microsoft does operate through a subsidiary in Ireland; however any subsidiary is still ultimately under Microsoft's corporate control, and so susceptible to this kind of order. Presumably Microsoft et al would have to come up with some kind of technical rather than managerial scheme whereby only the subsidiary could access the data; eg only the subsidiary held the encryption keys, under the control of Irish citizens.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
