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Privacy with Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps

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Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps is a critical component of the Microsoft cloud security stack, which helps you stay in control over your cloud applications with comprehensive visibility, auditing, and granular controls over your sensitive data.

This article provides an overview of the data security and privacy practices for Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps.

Data collected by Defender for Cloud Apps

Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps collects information from your configured cloud apps and data sources. Information collected from those sources includes:

  • Network data
  • OAuth app configuration and usage
  • Audits on cloud app usage by users and other apps
  • File metadata and content
  • System settings and policies
  • User and group configurations

Data storage location

Defender for Cloud Apps operates in the Microsoft Azure data centers in the following geographical regions:

Customer provisioning location Data storage location
Customers whose tenants are provisioned in the United States United States
Customers whose tenants are provisioned in the European Union or the United Kingdom Either the European Union and/or the United Kingdom
Customers whose tenants are provisioned in any other region The United States and/or a data center in the region that's nearest to the location of where the customer's Microsoft Entra tenant has been provisioned

In addition to the locations above, the App Governance features within Defender for Cloud Apps operate in the Microsoft Azure data centers in the following geographical regions listed below. Customer with App Governance enabled will have data stored within the data storage location the customer provisions in above, and in a second data storage location as described below:

Customer provisioning location Data storage location
Customers whose tenants are provisioned in the United States United States
Customers whose tenants are provisioned in in the European Union European Union
Customers whose tenants are provisioned in the United Kingdom United Kingdom
Customers whose tenants are provisioned in Australia Australia
Customers whose tenants are provisioned in Germany Germany
Customers whose tenants are provisioned in Canada Canada
Customers whose tenants are provisioned in France France
Customers whose tenants are provisioned in Japan Japan
Customers whose tenants are provisioned in India India
Customers whose tenants are provisioned in Asia Pacific Asia Pacific
Customers whose tenants are provisioned in any other region The United States and/or a data center in the region that's nearest to the location of where the customer's Microsoft Entra tenant has been provisioned

Customer data collected by Defender for Cloud Apps is either stored in your tenant location, as described in the previous tables, or in the geographic location of another online service that Defender for Cloud Apps shares data with, as defined by the data storage rules of that online service.

If Defender for Cloud Apps data is stored in your tenant location, your tenant isn't movable after having been created. To view your Defender for Cloud Apps tenant location in the Microsoft Defender portal, go to Settings > Cloud Apps > About > Region.

Data retention

Data from Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps is retained for up to 180 days, and is visible across the portal.

Your data is kept and is available to you while the license is under grace period or suspended mode. At the end of this period, that data is erased from Microsoft's systems to make it unrecoverable, no later than 180 days from contract termination or expiration.

Data sharing for Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps

Defender for Cloud Apps shares data, including customer data, among the following Microsoft products also licensed by the customer:

  • Microsoft Defender XDR
  • Microsoft Defender for Cloud
  • Microsoft Sentinel
  • Microsoft Defender for Endpoint
  • Microsoft Security Exposure Management
  • Microsoft Purview
  • Microsoft Entra ID Protection

Related content

For more information, see the Microsoft Service Trust portal.