Microsoft lets cloud users keep personal data within Europe to ease privacy fears

LONDON (AP) — Microsoft says it is upgrading its cloud computing service to let customers store all personal data within the European Union instead of having it flow to the U.S. where national privacy laws don’t exist. The Seattle-based company said Thursday that the changes apply to services including Azure, Microsoft 365, Power Platform and Dynamics 365. Cloud computing companies have been moving to localize data storage and processing amid tightening requirements in the 27-nation European Union, which has strict data privacy laws. Brussels and Washington have spent years wrangling over the safety of EU citizens’ data that tech companies store in the U.S. Microsoft says its “EU Data Boundary solution goes beyond European compliance requirements.”