On 21 October 2019 EDPS published the press release EDPS investigation into IT contracts: stronger cooperation to better protect rights of all individuals. In the press release the European Data Protection Supervisor start as follows:

Cooperation between public authorities in the Member States, EU institutions and other international organisations is essential to ensure that contractual arrangements and measures with Microsoft provide the same level of protection for individual rights throughout the European Economic Area (EEA). Amended contractual terms, technical safeguards and settings agreed between the Dutch Ministry of Justice and Security and Microsoft to better protect the rights of individuals shows that there is significant scope for improvement in the development of contracts between public administration and the most powerful software developers and online service outsourcers. The EDPS is of the opinion that such solutions should be extended not only to all public and private bodies in the EU, which is our short-term expectation, but also to individuals, the Assistant EDPS said today.

Read further

Read also th article in Dutch on the EDPS announcement (security.nl).