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> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Fastmail offers EU data region

**[Hacker News](https://daily.dev/sources/hn)** · 7 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments

## Summary

Fastmail now offers an EU data region, with primary data stored on company-owned servers in Amsterdam. Users can choose between US and EU regions via account settings (Settings → Users & Sharing → Team Settings → Data residency). EU-region accounts get primary data in Amsterdam with resilience replicas in the US. Fastmail pre-migrated users with European billing addresses. Caveats include: emergency backups remain in Philadelphia for all users, logs are US-only, some metadata is replicated globally, and Fastmail cannot guarantee data stays exclusively in the EU. No surcharge is applied for choosing the EU region.

## Full article

daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: <https://www.fastmail.com/blog/fastmail-offers-eu-data-region>

## Questions this post answers

### Does Fastmail let me choose to store my email data in the EU instead of the US?

Yes, Fastmail now offers an EU data region option with servers in Amsterdam, in addition to its existing US locations in Philadelphia and St Louis. Choosing EU makes Amsterdam the primary home for your mail and files, with incoming mail and app connections preferring EU servers, though a resilient replica copy still remains in the US for now.

_Weighing data residency for your inbox? daily.dev surfaces changes like this as providers adjust their regional options._

### If I choose the EU region with Fastmail, does all my data actually stay only in Europe?

No, choosing the EU region does not guarantee your data stays exclusively there. Resilient backup replicas remain in a US location, emergency backups are stored in Philadelphia for everyone, system logs are consolidated in the US, and some metadata like email addresses is replicated to all sites regardless of region choice.

_For anyone comparing providers on data sovereignty, daily.dev tracks how policies like Fastmail's actually apply in practice._

### Can Fastmail be compelled to share my data even if I store it in the EU region, given it's an Australian company?

Yes, because Fastmail is an Australian company subject to Australian law, including legal-cooperation treaties between Australia and other countries. Fastmail states it will respond the same way to lawful requests from relevant authorities regardless of whether your data is stored in the EU or US region, and points users to its published transparency report for details.

_Understanding jurisdictional reach matters when picking a provider; daily.dev helps developers stay on top of these disclosures._

## Community take

How the wider developer community reacted, aggregated from 2 discussions and 120 comments across hackernews (as of 2026-09-13).

**TL;DR:** Commenters broadly welcome Fastmail's EU data region as a step in the right direction, but are heavily skeptical of its practical privacy value given that Fastmail (an Australian company) falls under the US CLOUD Act, resilience replicas still sit in the US, and logs remain US-only — meaning no guarantee of true EU data sovereignty exists.

**Sentiment:** 25% positive · 40% mixed · 35% skeptical

**The case for**

- Fastmail uses its own hardware co-located in Amsterdam rather than renting from a US cloud provider, which is seen as a meaningful distinction.
- The move is appreciated as a positive incremental step by European customers who want primary data closer to home.
- No surcharge for the EU region is seen as a customer-friendly decision.
- Fastmail is transparent about the limitations rather than overselling the feature.

**The pushback**

- Fastmail is subject to the US CLOUD Act via the 2024 Australia–US bilateral agreement, so physical data location does not prevent US government access.
- Resilience replicas of EU-region data still reside in the US, undermining compliance use cases.
- Logs are stored in the US with no announced plans to change this.
- Fastmail explicitly cannot guarantee data stays exclusively in the EU, which commenters argue defeats the primary reason Europeans want an EU region.
- True data sovereignty requires a company with no US presence or legal ties, which Fastmail does not have.

**By community**

- hackernews (mixed): Broadly appreciative of the transparency and the infrastructure effort, but dominated by skepticism about whether physical EU location provides any real protection given CLOUD Act obligations and US-based replicas.

**Hottest debate:** Whether storing data in the EU provides any meaningful privacy or legal protection when the company is subject to the US CLOUD Act via the Australia–US bilateral agreement.

**Open questions**

- Will Fastmail eventually build a second EU datacenter to eliminate the need for US-based resilience replicas?
- Does Fastmail have a US legal entity that would make it directly subject to US jurisdiction independent of the CLOUD Act agreement?
- Will Fastmail move logs out of the US, and what exactly do those logs contain?
- Can any non-EU-headquartered company credibly offer true EU data sovereignty?

**Highlights**

> Yeah, this does absolutely not solve the CLOUD Act issues. However, it is good to look at what the ramifications of the CLOUD Act is for e-mail: - The US could request your data. You probably shouldn't use e-mail for anything sensitive anyway for many reasons. E-Mail was traditionally not encrypted and I think that many servers still allow plain-text communication. The protocols are old and there are all kinds of downgrade attacks. Aside from that, even if your service does not fall under the CLOUD Act, you are probably f*cked anyway, because most people you communicate with are using services that fall under the CLOUD Act. - The US can force the provider to block your account. The workarounds are: regularly backup your e-mail (easy for services that offer IMAP) and, most importantly, use a domain with an extension that is not under the control of a US (or probably five eyes) registrar. Use an E2E-encrypted messenger with perfect forward secrecy, etc. for most personal communication.
> — [microtonal on hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49224391)

> Not only is that not true, but in fact FastMail predates AWS by some years. Source: I founded FastMail.
> — [jph00 on hackernews · 1 comments](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49225416)

> And as a FastMail customer who spends a portion of the year in the US, I am happy to pay to move my data to the EU region, even if they cannot yet fully guarantee all my data will remain outside of US access at this time. Defense and mitigations in depth, over time. We must always start somewhere, and perfect is never the target (as it does not exist).
> — [toomuchtodo on hackernews · 1 comments](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49224133)

> HN Search: airbus critical apps scaleway - https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que... Gov.uk has replaced Stripe with Dutch provider Adyen - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48415217 - June 2026 (235 comments) Netherlands reaches deal with European cloud company to decrease U.S. tech reliance - https://nltimes.nl/2026/04/24/netherlands-reaches-deal-europ... - April 24th, 2026 Wary of US Big Tech, the EU looks to build its “EuroStack” - https://sherwood.news/world/wary-of-us-big-tech-the-eu-looks... - March 18th, 2026 Why European Companies Are Leaving US Cloud Providers in 2026 — And Where They're Going - https://massivegrid.com/blog/european-companies-leaving-us-c... - March 12th, 2026 EU Banks Launch Wero Payments to Dislodge Visa, Mastercard - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41666833 - September 2024 (88 comments)
> — [toomuchtodo on hackernews · 1 comments](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49225112)

> Data is still compellable through US Cloud Act (and other provisions). If you want true EU data region, you should buy from a company without presence in the US.
> — [varispeed on hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49224319)

**Source threads**

- [hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49223082) · 235 points · 116 comments
- [hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49152402) · 10 points · 4 comments

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---

Tags: [#privacy](https://daily.dev/tags/privacy), [#gdpr](https://daily.dev/tags/gdpr)

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