Ban on Microsoft 365 in schools in Baden-Württemberg: Statement from Microsoft

For the 2022/2023 school year, Microsoft 365 should no longer be used in schools in Baden-Württemberg, as decided by the state data protection officer Stefan Brink. The 40 schools affected will have to switch to an alternative. Microsoft is now speaking up.

The reason for the new directive is that an investigation could not dispel all concerns about data protection. For details, see here: Every year again: Microsoft 365 is to be banned from schools in Baden-Württemberg.

Microsoft, on the other hand, repeatedly emphasizes that Microsoft 365 does not collide with the requirements of the GDPR, which is why they do not want to give up and seek dialogue again. Microsoft issued the following written statement to us today:

“We have taken note of the press release from the LfDI, which refers to an assessment from April 2021. We remain firmly convinced that Microsoft 365 can also be used in schools in a GDPR-compliant manner. For this purpose we continue the discussions with Dr. Stefan Brink, Baden-Württemberg State Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information, to explain how the previous criticisms from the final report were remedied and how schools can use Microsoft 365 in a data protection-compliant manner.”

Sequel follows…