CookieLaw Blog April 11, 2014

Microsoft Cloud Receives EU Approval

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Microsoft has become the first and only cloud platform provider to gain acknowledgement from the EU data protection authorities, that its contracts meet the EU’s requirements for protection of personal data.

This means that customers will be able to use services like Azure, Office 365 and Microsoft Dynamics CRM, to store and move data anywhere in the world, without the need to rely on additional mechanisms like the US Safe Harbor Agreement – which has come under threat from MEPs in the light of the Snowden revelations.

The complexity of getting suitable legal protections in place for the transfer of data outside the EU is often cited as a major barrier to the more widespread adoption of cloud services by businesses – especially by the type of multinational organisations that could benefit from it most.

This development therefore could have a big impact on the market, and could give Microsoft a significant competitive edge on its competitors if it can maintain its unique status for a significant period.

You can read the blog article about this news, on the Microsoft blog

On top of this, Microsoft has been quick to confirm that web applications run on Azure are not subject to the Heartbleed bug, as the platform does not make use of OpenSSL.  So right now they are getting thumbs up all round for the privacy and security of data.

When we first started building our Optanon privacy services platform in 2011, Azure was a natural choice for our team, with many years of experience building applications on the Microsoft technology stack.  We are delighted therefore to see all this recent news confirming we made the right choice.

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