DThere are serious concerns from federal and state data protection authorities about using Microsoft 365 products. This is the result of a decision by the Data Protection Conference (DSK), the body of independent German data protection supervisory authorities in Germany, that was published over the weekend. For authorities, this means they can use common cloud-based Microsoft Office products such as Word, ExcelPowerPoint, Outlook or even the popular chat program Teams can only be used “after a considerable amount of thorough testing and justification”, as emphasized by Baden-Württemberg’s data protection officer, Stefan Brink .

Even in companies, use is likely to be more difficult in the future: it is not officially banned, and the Data Protection Convention does not issue any specific product warnings, as Brink explained. The Data Protection Convention is not even authorized to do so. However, those responsible for IT in companies will have to ensure in the future that the data security of employees and customers is not breached when using the products. “It’s going to be difficult,” warned Brink.