Google Workspace customers have been given the option to designate in which region data should be processed and stored. This gives companies more certainty about protecting their data.
Processing and storing data in the EU lowers the risk of interference from the U.S. government. Indeed, this government gives itself the right to request data from cloud providers or other players that hold data for investigations. That principle applies even to encrypted data. The EU is, therefore, very cautious in trusting U.S. cloud players, as one might expect.
Keeping data within the EU
Google addresses these concerns in Assured Controls Plus, which is available to Workspace customers. There it has made control buttons generally available that allow users to indicate whether data should be processed in the EU or the U.S. Companies that choose the EU region are guaranteed processing and retention in European data centers.
Administrators are also given detailed controls to refine the region and level of compliance. Multiple geographic areas can be selected, eliminating businesses’ dependence on their physical location for data processing and retention. Workspace users can additionally use Local Data Storage from now on. This preserves desired data in a Google Cloud Storage Bucket in a country of their choice.
European users get a little more control. Administrators in our region can designate from which physical locations the Google support team may provide support. That makes it possible to exclude Google teams in the Americas from stored data.
The new features will be rolled out to users in the EU and U.S. starting this week. Users must own a Workspace subscription, have an Enterprise Plus license, and have the Assured Controls and Assured Controls Plus add-ons active.
Also read: Want freedom of choice, security and data residency? Better pay up