Data Residency & Sovereignty Preferences Survey

Welcome! This survey explores your preferences for data storage locations, cross-border transfer conditions, and related trade-offs. Your participation is entirely voluntary, and you may stop at any time. There are no right or wrong answers — we want your honest opinions. All responses are confidential and will be reported only in aggregate. Estimated completion time: 10 minutes.

Are you responding to this survey for personal use or on behalf of an organization?

• Personal use (myself)
• On behalf of an organization

How familiar are you with the concept of data residency (i.e., where data is physically stored and processed)?

Do you currently require data to be stored in a specific country or region?

• Yes
• No
• Not sure

Please rank the following factors by how much they influence your data residency decisions. Drag to reorder (top = most important).

1. Regulatory compliance (e.g., GDPR, HIPAA)
2. Legal jurisdiction and liability
3. Performance and latency
4. Availability and disaster recovery
5. Provider transparency and auditability
6. Price and total cost

How confident are you that your current or prospective vendors can meet your data residency requirements?

In which region are you (or your organization) primarily located?

• Africa
• Asia
• Europe
• Latin America and the Caribbean
• Middle East
• North America
• Oceania
• Prefer not to say

Thank you for completing this survey! Your input will help us design data residency options that better meet your needs.

Approximately how many employees are in your organization?

• 1–9
• 10–49
• 50–249
• 250–999
• 1,000–4,999
• 5,000+
• Not applicable

How familiar are you with the concept of data sovereignty (i.e., data being subject to the laws of the country where it is stored)?

Which locations are acceptable for storing your data? Select all that apply.

• In-country only (no cross-border transfers)
• Within my broader region (e.g., EU, US, APAC)
• European Union member states
• United States
• United Kingdom
• Canada
• Australia or New Zealand
• Other (please specify)

Which conditions, if any, would make cross-border data transfers acceptable to you? Select all that apply.

• In-country only — no transfers under any conditions
• Transfers allowed under Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs)
• Transfers allowed under Binding Corporate Rules (BCRs)
• Transfers allowed where adequacy decisions exist
• Allowed if customer-managed encryption keys stay in-country
• Allowed if data is anonymized or pseudonymized
• Not sure

Based on your responses in this survey, please share any additional thoughts or concerns about your data residency or sovereignty needs.

Which of the following best describes your role in data governance or technology decisions?

• IT / Engineering
• Security / Compliance
• Legal / Privacy
• Executive leadership
• Procurement / Vendor management
• Other
• Not applicable

How important is the physical location of data storage when you choose a product or service?

Which data residency arrangement would best suit your needs?

• Single-country only
• Regional within a geography (e.g., EU-only, US-only)
• Multi-region with customer choice per dataset
• Provider-managed best-effort regional placement (no hard guarantees)
• No preference
• Not sure

What percentage premium, if any, would you be willing to pay for guaranteed in-country data storage?

• 0% — not willing to pay more
• 1–5%
• 6–10%
• 11–20%
• More than 20%
• Not sure

We'd like to learn a bit more about your data residency priorities. An AI moderator will ask a couple of brief follow-up questions.

When will you next review or decide on data residency requirements?

• Actively selecting now
• Within 3 months
• 3–12 months
• More than 12 months
• No plans to review
• Not applicable

Which of the following would prevent you from adopting a product or service? Select all that apply.

• Data stored outside my specified location
• Cross-border transfers without clear transparency
• Inability to audit or verify data location
• No residency-related SLAs or commitments
• No option for customer-managed encryption keys
• Regulatory non-compliance risk
• Significantly higher total cost
• Significant performance degradation
• Other (please specify)