I work in Azure.

We are happy to talk about the actual location of your data for privacy purposes: http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/support/trust-center/priva... I don't know how often this is actually done, but it's not out of the question that a large customer might prefer to run their own fiber to our datacenter(s).

The reason it's called a private cloud is because it's hosted at the client premises, not in the MS datacenter.

http://arstechnica.com/business/2012/04/a-sysadmins-view-of-...

As a Microsoft cloud services user, I know what metropolitan areas our services are hosted out of, and I believe that we can request a physical tour of one or more of those datacenters can be arranged. If you are a large customer, you can also arrange for dedicated connectivity to the Microsoft network via a peering connection.

Re the NSA splitter issue, that's just a reality of life. If you've run a large email, backup or similar system for a length of time, you've inevitably come across requests from law enforcement or litigating attorneys for data. So don't assume that nobody is accessing your stuff because it's in a room in your building.