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Fastmail launches EU data region with Amsterdam servers

Email provider lets users store data in European Union instead of US, built on company's own infrastructure rather than cloud services.

11 items557 engagement283 comments Hacker NewsPressMastodon

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Peak 2 items in one hour at Aug 8, 11 AM; 11 items over 7 days Aug 2, 7 PM — 1 itemAug 2, 8 PM — no itemsAug 2, 9 PM — no itemsAug 2, 10 PM — no itemsAug 2, 11 PM — no itemsAug 3, 12 AM — no itemsAug 3, 1 AM — no itemsAug 3, 2 AM — no itemsAug 3, 3 AM — no itemsAug 3, 4 AM — no itemsAug 3, 5 AM — no itemsAug 3, 6 AM — no itemsAug 3, 7 AM — no itemsAug 3, 8 AM — no itemsAug 3, 9 AM — no itemsAug 3, 10 AM — no itemsAug 3, 11 AM — no itemsAug 3, 12 PM — no itemsAug 3, 1 PM — no itemsAug 3, 2 PM — no itemsAug 3, 3 PM — no itemsAug 3, 4 PM — no itemsAug 3, 5 PM — no itemsAug 3, 6 PM — no itemsAug 3, 7 PM — no itemsAug 3, 8 PM — no itemsAug 3, 9 PM — no itemsAug 3, 10 PM — no itemsAug 3, 11 PM — no itemsAug 4, 12 AM — no itemsAug 4, 1 AM — no itemsAug 4, 2 AM — no itemsAug 4, 3 AM — no itemsAug 4, 4 AM — no itemsAug 4, 5 AM — no itemsAug 4, 6 AM — no itemsAug 4, 7 AM — no itemsAug 4, 8 AM — no itemsAug 4, 9 AM — no itemsAug 4, 10 AM — no itemsAug 4, 11 AM — no itemsAug 4, 12 PM — no itemsAug 4, 1 PM — no itemsAug 4, 2 PM — no itemsAug 4, 3 PM — no itemsAug 4, 4 PM — no itemsAug 4, 5 PM — no itemsAug 4, 6 PM — no itemsAug 4, 7 PM — no itemsAug 4, 8 PM — no itemsAug 4, 9 PM — no itemsAug 4, 10 PM — no itemsAug 4, 11 PM — no itemsAug 5, 12 AM — no itemsAug 5, 1 AM — no itemsAug 5, 2 AM — no itemsAug 5, 3 AM — no itemsAug 5, 4 AM — no itemsAug 5, 5 AM — no itemsAug 5, 6 AM — no itemsAug 5, 7 AM — no itemsAug 5, 8 AM — no itemsAug 5, 9 AM — no itemsAug 5, 10 AM — no itemsAug 5, 11 AM — no itemsAug 5, 12 PM — no itemsAug 5, 1 PM — no itemsAug 5, 2 PM — no itemsAug 5, 3 PM — no itemsAug 5, 4 PM — no itemsAug 5, 5 PM — no itemsAug 5, 6 PM — no itemsAug 5, 7 PM — no itemsAug 5, 8 PM — no itemsAug 5, 9 PM — no itemsAug 5, 10 PM — no itemsAug 5, 11 PM — no itemsAug 6, 12 AM — no itemsAug 6, 1 AM — no itemsAug 6, 2 AM — no itemsAug 6, 3 AM — no itemsAug 6, 4 AM — no itemsAug 6, 5 AM — no itemsAug 6, 6 AM — no itemsAug 6, 7 AM — no itemsAug 6, 8 AM — no itemsAug 6, 9 AM — no itemsAug 6, 10 AM — no itemsAug 6, 11 AM — no itemsAug 6, 12 PM — no itemsAug 6, 1 PM — no itemsAug 6, 2 PM — no itemsAug 6, 3 PM — no itemsAug 6, 4 PM — no itemsAug 6, 5 PM — no itemsAug 6, 6 PM — no itemsAug 6, 7 PM — no itemsAug 6, 8 PM — no itemsAug 6, 9 PM — no itemsAug 6, 10 PM — no itemsAug 6, 11 PM — no itemsAug 7, 12 AM — no itemsAug 7, 1 AM — no itemsAug 7, 2 AM — no itemsAug 7, 3 AM — no itemsAug 7, 4 AM — no itemsAug 7, 5 AM — no itemsAug 7, 6 AM — no itemsAug 7, 7 AM — no itemsAug 7, 8 AM — no itemsAug 7, 9 AM — no itemsAug 7, 10 AM — no itemsAug 7, 11 AM — no itemsAug 7, 12 PM — no itemsAug 7, 1 PM — no itemsAug 7, 2 PM — no itemsAug 7, 3 PM — no itemsAug 7, 4 PM — no itemsAug 7, 5 PM — no itemsAug 7, 6 PM — no itemsAug 7, 7 PM — no itemsAug 7, 8 PM — no itemsAug 7, 9 PM — no itemsAug 7, 10 PM — no itemsAug 7, 11 PM — no itemsAug 8, 12 AM — no itemsAug 8, 1 AM — no itemsAug 8, 2 AM — no itemsAug 8, 3 AM — no itemsAug 8, 4 AM — no itemsAug 8, 5 AM — no itemsAug 8, 6 AM — no itemsAug 8, 7 AM — no itemsAug 8, 8 AM — no itemsAug 8, 9 AM — no itemsAug 8, 10 AM — no itemsAug 8, 11 AM — 2 itemsAug 8, 12 PM — 3 itemsAug 8, 1 PM — 1 itemAug 8, 2 PM — no itemsAug 8, 3 PM — 1 itemAug 8, 4 PM — no itemsAug 8, 5 PM — no itemsAug 8, 6 PM — no itemsAug 8, 7 PM — no itemsAug 8, 8 PM — no itemsAug 8, 9 PM — no itemsAug 8, 10 PM — no itemsAug 8, 11 PM — no itemsAug 9, 12 AM — no itemsAug 9, 1 AM — no itemsAug 9, 2 AM — no itemsAug 9, 3 AM — no itemsAug 9, 4 AM — no itemsAug 9, 5 AM — 1 itemAug 9, 6 AM — no itemsAug 9, 7 AM — 1 itemAug 9, 8 AM — no itemsAug 9, 9 AM — 1 itemAug 9, 10 AM — no itemsAug 9, 11 AM — no itemsAug 9, 12 PM — no itemsAug 9, 1 PM — no itemsAug 9, 2 PM — no itemsAug 9, 3 PM — no itemsAug 9, 4 PM — no itemsAug 9, 5 PM — no itemsAug 9, 6 PM — no itemsAug 9, 7 PM — no itemsAug 9, 8 PM — no items 2 items · 11 AM
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Summary, timeline and people extracted by Claude from 11 items across 3 sources · 8h ago. Quotes are verbatim.

Fastmail announced it now offers European Union customers the option to store their email data primarily on servers in Amsterdam instead of the US. The company built its own infrastructure in a secure Amsterdam facility rather than renting cloud services, maintaining encryption and redundancy standards matching its US locations. However, some commenters note that backup copies remain in the US and that US law can still compel data access regardless of server location.

  • Fastmail built its own infrastructure in Amsterdam rather than renting cloud services, maintaining encryption and redundancy standards.
  • EU account data stores primarily in Amsterdam with backup replicas currently remaining in the US, meaning backups are not EU-exclusive.
  • Users should not assume the service provides guaranteed protection from US government data access via the Cloud Act, according to company and community analysis.
  • The offering represents a significant shift for Fastmail's EU customer base, though some suggest using European-only email providers as an alternative.

How it unfolded

  1. Analysis US Cloud Act concerns

    Commenters argue that US law (the CLOUD Act) allows the US government to compel data access from American companies regardless of server location, calling the offering 'sovereignty washing'.

  2. Reaction Criticism of incomplete EU isolation

    Commenters argue the offering is incomplete because data still replicates to US servers and call for Fastmail to announce a fully EU-only option before claiming success.

  3. Reaction Positive customer response

    Some users express satisfaction with Fastmail's offering, noting the service has worked well for them over the past couple of years.

  4. Reaction Community scrutiny of limitations

    HN commenters highlight that the service does not guarantee data remains only in the EU, with backups stored in Philadelphia and resilient replicas still in US locations.

  5. Report Story reaches Hacker News front page

    Fastmail's announcement gained significant traction on Hacker News with 471 points and 273 comments, indicating strong technical community interest.

  6. Event Fastmail announces EU data region

    Fastmail published announcement that users can now choose to store data in the European Union on secure servers in Amsterdam instead of defaulting to US locations.

What people are saying verbatim

“You can now make the European Union the primary home for your Fastmail data, on our own secure servers in Amsterdam.”

Fastmail · Fastmail blog

“If what you need is a guarantee that your data remains only in the EU, we don't have that, and we'd rather tell you directly than let you assume otherwise.”

Fastmail · Fastmail blog

“EU data regions are a reflexive action by companies that try to hold on to their EU customers... Realize that as long as you are still hosted on US owned infrastructure or that if there are US (or: five-eyes) owned companies anywhere in the stack your data can still be forcibly pulled.”

jacquesm, HN commenter · Hacker News

“I call this "sovereignty washing": American companies pretending they can magically free themselves from the U.S. CLOUD Act by setting up a paper European presence.”

hn_submit, HN commenter · Hacker News · Aug 9, 8:02 AM

“Nice, as a European customer, I appreciate this. Side note, I moved to Fastmail a couple years ago, and so far I've been very happy with it!”

cube2222, HN commenter · Hacker News · Aug 8, 2:05 PM

Voices from the web unedited

  • Unfortunately, even if all data lives in the European Union, as long as a company is conducting business in the US, the Cloud Act makes it possible to compel them to hand over any information. This can include making administrative personnel sign NDAs or face heavy repercussions. Conducting business in the US includes advertising to US citizens…

    _tk_Hacker News11h agoview on Hacker News ↗

  • EU folks, note the warnings threaded throughout this post: this is not currently any sort of panacea against US or AU data hosting risks, but it will make your data noticeably closer to home. Fastmail (Australia) merged with Pobox (Philadelphia) resulting in a complex tri-national law/risk surface when the EU is involved, so go in eyes wide open…

    altairprimeHacker News1d agoview on Hacker News ↗

  • EU data regions are a reflexive action by companies that try to hold on to their EU customers (and more and more are leaving, surprisingly the larger ones seem to be leading here). Realize that as long as you are still hosted on US owned infrastructure or that if there are US (or: five-eyes) owned companies anywhere in the stack your data can…

    jacquesmHacker News1d agoview on Hacker News ↗

  • > Resilient replicas of your data will live in the US (for now). As we only have one location in Europe so far, the geographically separate copy will remain on servers in one of our US locations.Wow, it's nothing. How about writing your PR after the data is not going to the US at all?

    zecgHacker News15h agoview on Hacker News ↗

  • Posted on the previous submission for this: it’s a good start, but from the article:If what you need is a guarantee that your data remains only in the EU, we don’t have that, and we’d rather tell you directly than let you assume otherwise.

    robin_realaHacker News1d agoview on Hacker News ↗

  • I call this "sovereignty washing": American companies pretending they can magically free themselves from the U.S. CLOUD Act by setting up a paper European presence.Anyone who falls for this is a fool wanting to be fooled.

    hn_submitHacker News13h agoview on Hacker News ↗

  • Nice, as a European customer, I appreciate this.Side note, I moved to Fastmail a couple years ago, and so far I’ve been very happy with it! The Gmail migrator works great, too.

    cube2222Hacker News1d agoview on Hacker News ↗