Microsoft said Thursday that 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 changes apply to services including Azure, Microsoft 365, Power Platform, and Dynamics 365, the Seattle-based tech company said.
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. following revelations by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden that the American government eavesdropped on people's online data and communications.
Microsoft said its "EU Data Boundary solution goes beyond European compliance requirements." The company has previously pledged that customers wouldn't have their data moved outside the EU.
Last year, it started storing and processing some data inside Europe. Now it's expanding that to all personal data, including pseudonymized data found in automated system logs, which are generated automatically when online services run.
Later this year, Microsoft will start making sure technical support data is kept within Europe. It also plans a paid option for initial tech support response from within the EU.
Amazon last year rolled out independent cloud infrastructure for the EU as it looked to address strict regulations that companies and public sector organizations face.
Harvey Weinstein hit with new sex crime charge in New York
Harvey Weinstein pleaded not guilty Wednesday to a new sex crime charge in New York, as he awaits retrial in his landmark #MeToo case.
Details of the new allegations were not immediately available. He was charged with committing a criminal sex act.
The jailed ex-movie mogul has long maintained that any sexual activity was consensual.
Prosecutors revealed last week that Weinstein had been indicted on additional sex crime charges that weren't part of the case that led to his now-overturned 2020 conviction. But the new indictment was sealed until his arraignment.
Prosecutors have said that the grand jury heard evidence of up to three alleged assaults — two in hotels in the Tribeca neighborhood and one at a lower Manhattan residential building. The purported incidents took place from the mid-2000s to 2016, prosecutors said.
But it's not clear whether any of those allegations underlie the new indictment.
While bracing for the new charges, Weinstein also is awaiting retrial after New York state's highest court this spring overturned his 2020 conviction on rape and sexual assault charges involving two women. The high court, called the Court of Appeals, ordered a new trial, which is tentatively scheduled to begin Nov. 12.
The Court of Appeals ruled that the then-trial judge unfairly allowed testimony against him based on allegations that were not part of the case. That judge's term expired in 2022, and he is no longer on the bench.
Prosecutors have said they'll seek to fold the new charges into the retrial, but Weinstein's lawyers say it should be a separate case.
Weinstein, who also was convicted in 2022 in a Los Angeles rape case, remains behind bars while awaiting his New York retrial.
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