On Friday, May 25, the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation — better known as GDPR — officially takes effect.
GDPR is an important step forward for privacy rights in Europe and around the world, and we’ve been enthusiastic supporters of GDPR since it was first proposed in 2012. It sets a strong standard for privacy and data protection by empowering people to control their personal information. We appreciate the strong leadership by the European Union on these important issues and the invitation to Microsoft to be one of a small number of companies participating in the official events in Brussels on Friday.
We believe privacy is a fundamental human right. As people live more of their lives online and depend more on technology to operate their businesses, engage with friends and family, pursue opportunities, and manage their health and finances, the protection of this right is becoming more important than ever.
Privacy is also the foundation for trust. We know that people will only use technology that they trust. Ultimately, trust is created when people are confident that their personal data is safe and they have a clear understanding of how and why it is used. This means companies like ours have a huge responsibility to safeguard the privacy of the personal data we collect and the data we manage for our commercial customers.
Our commitment to GDPR compliance
We are committed to making sure that our products and services comply with GDPR. That’s why we’ve had more than 1,600 engineers across the company working on GDPR projects. Since its enactment in 2016, we’ve made significant investments to redesign our tools, systems and processes to meet the requirements of GDPR. Today, GDPR compliance is deeply ingrained in the culture at Microsoft and embedded in the processes and practices that are at the heart of how we build and deliver products and services.
We feel good about what we achieved so far. But we know that May 25 isn’t the end of our work. Instead, it is the beginning of the next phase of our focus on GDPR. The fact is that this complex regulatory framework is as new to privacy regulators as it is to us. The ongoing interpretation of the detailed aspects of this regulation will determine the steps that we all will need to take to maintain compliance. As our customers use our tools and experience other features we’ll also listen to their feedback and suggestions for improvements. Because regulatory interpretations change with experience and changing circumstances over time, we will constantly evaluate our products, services and data uses as understanding of GDPR evolves.