Microsoft EU Data Boundary dubbed ‘smoke and mirrors’ Data protection experts claim Microsoft’s decision to create an EU Data Boundary is a tacit admission that it routinely transfers and processes the personal data of European citizens outside the bloc Share this item with your network: By Published: 18 May 2021 16:30 Microsoft has committed to storing and processing all of its European Union (EU) customer data within the bloc by creating an “EU Data Boundary”, but data protection experts have criticised the move as a tacit admission that data is being routinely processed elsewhere. In a blog post announcing the plan, Microsoft president and chief legal officer Brad Smith said the EU Data Boundary pledge would apply to data processed by its main cloud services – including Azure, Microsoft 365 and Dynamics 365 – and the engineering work needed to deliver the project would be completed by the end of 2022.