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This is not directly technical question. but I think this is an important question for every admin implementing Google Apps instead of their own mail server.

I'm pretty excited by the possibilities in Google Apps Standard/Premier Edition.

But I am concerned that I hand over all control of my data to Google.

Which laws and interests control my data

It seems that google reserve the right to place the data in USA (In my location the "Terms of Service" refer to Google USA). Being in Europe that concerns me because that will put my data under American control instead of my countries laws and control. Basically if USA make some special law or have interests that are at stake, USA could close my access and/or use my data anyway USA see fit.

If I rented a server in my country it would be way more easy to take actions to recover my data and take legal action against the company.

Backup of data

Furthermore the ability to backup data (emails, docs etc.) seems sketchy, google marketplace solutions looks untrustworthy - unless I have misunderstood how Google Apps works.

How do you deal/think about above?

Cudos
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You're right it's not a technical question, it's a multi-dimensional business decision. You have to weigh the cost of keeping your data in-house vs. the cost of letting it go out and factor in the effect on the business of the different levels of control you have in different scenarios.

Ward - Trying Codidact
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I am not a lawyer, so I'll skip the legalese part of the question.

There is an API that can be used for data backup. You can also download one or multiple documents as ZIP file manually.

As an alternative, services like backupify.com will do backup for you - but very likely will have same legal issue (data location) as Google has.

Miro A.
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