Endorsement for Microsoft Azure and Office 365 Services

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner has inked a contract to store all applications and data on Microsoft Azure and Office 365 services.

The deal was made, after a Privacy Impact Assessment found that Microsoft offered industry-leading data security, and better data security than the Privacy Commissioner can deliver for itself.

"Our privacy impact assessment (PIA) explains the context for our move, the key privacy risks, and why we are satisfied that we can overcome those risks," a notice on the Commissioner's website said.

Data will reside in Microsoft’s data centres in Sydney, with possible back-ups in Melbourne.

"We are satisfied that the privacy laws in Australia provide an equivalent level of protection to New Zealand law," the Privacy Commissioner said.

"Microsoft’s terms of service, along with local and overseas privacy regulations, will make sure that we have control over the data while we store it in Microsoft’s data centres.

"Microsoft also undergoes regular independent audits of its compliance with international standards."

The Privacy Commissioner said the deal provides access "state-of-the-art" support and security at a fraction of the cost of doing it in-house or through any onshore provider.

"This means that our data is safer, and we have more resources to deploy for to other parts of our business," the Privacy Commissioner said.

"Our move to an externally hosted environment is consistent with government policy to encourage the uptake of outsourced data storage and processing."