Fastmail Introduces EU Data Residency Options

Date: August 3, 2026
Author: Bron Gondwana, CEO
Category: Company

Whether you prefer the US or EU for your data storage is now a choice you can make. Fastmail has listened to users who prioritize data location for reasons ranging from regulatory compliance and local legislation to the simple desire to keep personal information closer to home.

You now have the option to designate the European Union as the primary residence for your account data, hosted on secure servers located in Amsterdam.

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🛠️ Infrastructure: Built, Not Rented

Unlike many providers, Fastmail does not rely on "big cloud" providers. We don't simply rent virtual space and pass along a third party's promises. Instead, we utilize a "hands-on" approach:

• Custom Hardware: Our engineers deployed our own servers in a secure Amsterdam co-location facility.
• Strict Standards: This site mirrors the high specifications of our Philadelphia and St Louis hubs—down to the exact model of the disks used in the machines.
• Physical Security: Data is stored in locked racks and is encrypted at rest.
• In-House Management: Our own team handles all maintenance and operations.

This philosophy of ownership has been the cornerstone of our privacy, performance, and reliability for over a quarter-century.

Data Redundancy Logic

To ensure your mail is never lost, we follow a strict replication formula: $\text{Total Copies} \ge (\text{2 Primary Location Copies}) + (\text{1 Geographically Separate Copy})$

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🌐 Data Flow and Regional Differences

Depending on which region you select, your data travels differently.

Regional Comparison Table

Visualizing the Connection Flow

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🌍 Global Constants (What Applies to Everyone)

Regardless of your choice, some elements remain universal to ensure the system functions correctly:

1. Availability First: We prioritize uptime. If your primary region is offline, you will be locked out temporarily connect to another region to maintain access.
2. Generic Domains: If you use a non-regional domain, mail may route through either the US or EU.
3. Emergency Backups: All accounts have encrypted backups taken every few hours, stored in Philadelphia.
4. Universal Data: Certain metadata is replicated across all sites, including:
   • Email addresses and customer metadata.
   • Standalone Files feature and website storage.
   • Linked third-party service credentials.
5. System Health: All logs are centralized for monitoring and support.
6. External Partners: Billing and debugging third parties are integrated identically for all users.

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⚙️ Technical Configuration

For those using external clients, your IMAP or POP3 settings do not need to be updated.

Note: Generic hostnames use an internal proxy to route you to your active server. While we are working to terminate these connections at the nearest network edge, we provide regional server names for users who want explicit control over their connection point.

Example of a conceptual regional config:

# Example: Regional server preference
SET server = "eu.fastmail.com"
SET port = 993
SET ssl = true

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⚖️ Legal Jurisdiction

It is important to be transparent about the legal framework:

Fastmail is an Australian company. Consequently, we are governed by Australian law, including international legal-cooperation treaties. Regardless of where your data physically sits, we handle lawful requests from authorities consistently, as detailed in our transparency report.

Crucial Disclaimer: We cannot provide a guarantee that your data never leaves the EU. We believe in being honest about this rather than allowing users to make false assumptions.

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🔄 Migration Process

We have attempted to predict user preference based on billing addresses.

Your Migration Status:

• Pre-selected for EU: If your billing address is in/near Europe, an encrypted copy was already moved. This will soon become your primary copy.
• Requesting EU Migration: If you weren't pre-selected, you can join the queue. Note: This is slower as we must sync all data across the ocean.
• Moving back to US: If you were pre-selected but prefer the US, you can switch back quickly since a US copy already exists.