Skip to main content
Solutions
Products
Industries
Resources
Solutions
Products
Industries
Resources
A row of icons displaying Google Workspace products.

Digital sovereignty

Meet regulatory requirements by using a cloud service that is compliant with industry certifications and controlling where your Google Workspace data is stored and processed, how it's encrypted and who can access it.

Contact salesStart Free Trial
Illustrated graphic of a lock shield indicating protection of sensitive data through digital data sovereignty with Google Workspace.

What is data sovereignty?

In a global economy, organisations often transfer data between different countries and regions to enable collaboration among their employees and partners. The emergence of cloud services as a secure, reliable platform to process and store data helps make these transactions possible, safe and compliant with regulatory standards. Digital sovereignty involves keeping sensitive information protected while allowing organisations to have agency over where their data is stored and processed to help ensure that it's in compliance with the laws and regulations of the country where it originates, who can access it so that only authorised parties can access that information, and what software is used to allow portability and survivability in case of an emergency.

Protect your data and ensure compliance

Globe icon

Regulatory compliance

Stay ahead of evolving regulations across the world. Advanced data residency controls and industry certifications allow you to take a proactive approach.

Icon of a padlock and a refresh arrow

Privacy from third parties

Prevent cloud provider employees or foreign government agencies from accessing your sensitive data with technical, attestable controls.

Groups icon

Granular data controls

Determine the regions where your data is processed and stored. Control who can access your data and from where with encryption and zero-trust controls.

Achieve digital independence with Google Workspace

Illustrated graphic of the layers of security across Google that support Google Workspace.

Secure-by-design architecture

Workspace runs on Google's secure-by-design infrastructure and comes with advanced AI-powered threat defences and data loss prevention controls to provide a secure foundation for organisations of all sizes.

Illustrated graphic of the layers of security across Google that support Google Workspace.

Data residency and sovereignty

You can choose where your data is stored and processed, such as the EU or the US. You can also store a copy of your data in a country of your choice with local data storage and select the region from which your data can be accessed for support purposes.

Illustrated graphic of data residency and sovereignty tools within Google Workspace.

Customer-controlled encryption keys

Client-side encryption (CSE) adds another layer of data privacy and protection to help prevent Google and foreign governments from being able to access your confidential data.

Illustrated graphic of customer-controlled encryption tools within Google Workspace.

Compliance with industry standards

You can meet demanding regulatory requirements by using a cloud service that is certified according to industry standards such as SOC 1/2/3, ISO 27701 and 27001 and can help meet rigorous compliance requirements such as GDPR, HIPAA, FedRAMP High, DoD IL4 and more.

Illustrated graphic of regulatory industry standards that users can meet through Google Workspace.

Generative AI privacy

As part of our long-standing commitments to keeping organisational data private, Gemini for Workspace does not use your data, prompts or generated responses to train or improve Gemini. Your data does not belong to Google and is not used for advertising purposes, and you can delete or export it at any time. For more information about how Gemini for Workspace protects your privacy, please refer to the Generative AI in Workspace Privacy Hub.

Illustrated graphic of generative AI privacy within Google Workspace.

Trusted by industry leaders

We have migrated approximately 270,000 users to regionalised data processing while maintaining the same functionality that Workspace has always offered, with no reported impact to end users, so we are able to be more productive and innovative. We control our most sensitive data with encryption keys owned by Airbus, which is only possible with client-side encryption in Google Workspace.

Sebastian Aubineau, IM Digital Workplace and Collaboration Product Leader, Airbus
Read the blog

At Verizon, we prioritise security in all facets of our managed work, including access requests. With solutions such as access approvals, Verizon both retroactively and proactively leverages this added layer of security with additional layers based on sensitivity and needs.

Russell Leader, Director Collaboration and Mobility, Verizon
Read the blog

The Gmail team working to encrypt and secure communication using existing hardware keys, not just within our institution but across the US government, makes it clear that Google understands our technical requirements and the importance of data confidentiality.

Sean Baker, Chief Technology and Senior Information Security Officer, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences
Read the blog

Learn more about how to take control of your data

Thumbnail of opening slide of presentation from Next 2024.
Video

Learn how to keep your data private and compliant with Google Workspace

Watch now
Image of Google Workspace blog announcing the general availability of Assured Controls.
Blog

Learn about new data sovereignty capabilities with Google Workspace

Read now
Thumbnail of opening slide of presentation from Next 2024.
Video

Learn about the data privacy capabilities within Google Workspace that help keep Airbus IP private

Watch now
Thumbnail of opening slide of presentation from Next 2024.
Video

Learn how to keep your data private and compliant with Google Workspace

Watch now
Image of Google Workspace blog announcing the general availability of Assured Controls.
Blog

Learn about new data sovereignty capabilities with Google Workspace

Read now
Thumbnail of opening slide of presentation from Next 2024.
Video

Learn about the data privacy capabilities within Google Workspace that help keep Airbus IP private

Watch now

Frequently asked questions

  • Data regions capability helps customers store and process their data in a region of their choice, and local data storage enables customers to select the country location of stored data, to proactively comply with evolving local or industry regulations, or client requirements to keep data within a specific part of the world. Workspace also offers a unique encryption capability called client-side encryption that allows organisations to control encryption keys outside of Google and select the location of where the encryption keys are hosted to stay compliant with regional compliance requirements. Additionally, access controls within Google Workspace enable customers to limit the region from which Google employees access customer data for support purposes, and enforce customisable rules that require Google support staff to seek fine-grained approvals before any access to data is performed.

  • Digital sovereignty capabilities, such as data regions and client-side encryption, are available to customers with the Workspace Enterprise Plus licence. Additional digital sovereignty controls are available with the Assured Controls Plus add-on.

  • Check out the technical documentation to better understand how Google protects your organisation's privacy and see how advanced privacy, confidentiality and digital sovereignty controls can enhance it even further.

  • Google G in a shield logo

    Start today

    Achieve digital sovereignty with Google Workspace.

    Contact salesStart Free Trial