From January, Microsoft will let Europeans choose whether they want to store data in the EU

Microsoft will begin rolling out the EU Data Boundary on January 1. This allows commercial and public organizations to have their data processed in the EU. The company will start with customer data from its cloud services, with other data to be added later.

From next year users can choose it to no longer allow their customer data from the cloud services Microsoft 365, Azure, Power Platform and Dynamics 365 to reach the European Union and the European Free Trade Association to leave. This means that this data is processed and stored in a European data center. According to the tech giant This means that the majority of users’ personal data falls below the EU data limit.

Other types of data should be addressed in the next phases, Microsoft claims. The second phase concerns ‘pseudonymized data’, such as log data. This phase should take place at the end of 2023. The third and final phase will arrive in 2024 and will involve data collected by the company from users during customer service calls.

Microsoft is introducing its EU Data Boundary solution in response to the European Union’s GDPR rules. Personal data may be processed outside Europe, but only under certain conditions. For example, companies may only export data if they can guarantee that it is as well protected abroad as in Europe. Microsoft claims that the company already complies with these guidelines, but this solution will allow business and consumer customers to gain better insight into where their data is stored. Microsoft has more than seventeen data centers in Europe where it can store and process customer data.