Microsoft to Keep European Data Locally Amid Policy Uncertainty

Microsoft Corp. is letting cloud customers in Europe store their data locally, amid ongoing policy negotiations between the U.S. and the European Union over privacy protections for transatlantic data flows.

The company’s so-called “EU data boundary” will rely on data centers located in 13 countries throughout the bloc.

“In other words, we will not need to move your data outside the EU,” Brad Smith, Microsoft’s president and chief legal officer, said in a Thursday blog post.

The move comes after a U.S. Commerce Department official who oversaw data policy work warned that companies handling information on EU citizens would ...