BRUSSELS, March 11 (Reuters) - The European Commission's

use of Microsoft ( MSFT ) software breached EU privacy rules and

the bloc's executive also failed to implement adequate

safeguards for personal data transferred to non-EU countries,

the EU privacy watchdog said on Monday.

The European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) ordered the

Commission to take measures to comply with privacy rules and to

halt data transfer to the U.S. company and subsidiaries located

in third countries which do not have privacy deals with the EU,

setting a deadline of Dec. 9.

The EDPS's decision followed a three-year probe triggered by

worries about the transfer of personal data to the United States

following revelations in 2013 by former U.S. intelligence

contractor Edward Snowden of mass U.S. surveillance.

"The Commission has failed to provide appropriate safeguards

to ensure that personal data transferred outside the EU/EEA are

afforded an essentially equivalent level of protection as

guaranteed in the EU/EEA," the watchdog said in a statement.

The EEA (European Economic Area) is made up of the 27 EU

countries, along with Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.

"In its contract with Microsoft ( MSFT ), the Commission did not

sufficiently specify what types of personal data are to be

collected and for which explicit and specified purposes when

using Microsoft ( MSFT ) 365," the EDPS said.

Microsoft ( MSFT ) 365 is the product suite that includes Word

documents, Excel spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations and

Outlook emails.

The data protection authority ordered the Commission to

suspend all data flows resulting from its use of Microsoft ( MSFT ) 365

to Microsoft ( MSFT ) and its affiliates and sub-processors located in

countries outside Europe not covered by an adequacy decision.

The EU currently has data adequacy agreements with 16

countries, including Argentina, Japan, South Korea, Switzerland,

Britain and the United States.

The EU executive was also told to take measures to ensure

that its use of Microsoft ( MSFT ) 365 complies with privacy rules.