It's not because of some mysterious security reason. Latency between Asia and Europe is doubled by going through the US. You can't argue with the speed of light.
Even when the speed of light is not an issue (i.e. Canada), many people are essentially barred from storing data in US websites, because the possibility of warrantless searches conflict with privacy laws.
"Some Internet technologists and privacy advocates say those actions and other government policies may be hastening the shift in Canadian and European traffic away from the United States.
Since passage of the Patriot Act, many companies based outside of the United States have been reluctant to store client information in the U.S.,” said Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington. “There is an ongoing concern that U.S. intelligence agencies will gather this information without legal process. There is particular sensitivity about access to financial information as well as communications and Internet traffic that goes through U.S. switches."
Sure would be nice if the newspaper of record could come up with something a little more substantive in their reporting/analysis.
I'm not arguing with the premise -- I have no data to go one way or another. But I still have no data, and I read the article. Something wrong about that. The NYT really should be better than that.
Only saying that (as the article briefly touches on) companies and governments in Canada and Europe are not allowed to store sensitive data on US websites (by law). Kind of a competitive disadvantage.
