Microsoft’s commitment to GDPR

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.

Today Microsoft is announcing that we will extend the rights that are at the heart of GDPR to all of our consumer customers worldwide. Known as Data Subject Rights, they include the right to know what data we collect about you, to correct that data, to delete it and even to take it somewhere else. Our privacy dashboard gives users the tools they need to take control of their data.

You can read the new privacy statement here. And you can find out what’s new in the privacy statement here.

As GDPR goes into effect, one of our most important goals is to help businesses become trusted stewards of their customers’ data. This is why we offer a robust set of tools and services for GDPR compliance that are backed up by contractual commitments.

You can learn more at: Microsoft.com/GDPR