Digital vassals? French Government 'exposes citizens' data to US'

Having worked for the French state and wrestled a few times with its IT services, I can tell you that the reason for choosing Microsoft isn't cost, or "efficiency".

It's that they only know Microsoft, they don't want to learn something else, and if there's a problem, it's Microsoft's fault, no theirs, so they don't have to deal with their own incompetence.

If you want an anecdote, we were working with SAS, a statistical software which required costly licences (more than a million € for a few dozens of workers). I suggested to switch to R or Python to the top director, who agreed.

First meeting with the service in charge, the chief opens with "ok, we are asked to change, but the goal here is to show that we tried, and found that it's not possible."

I resigned a few months after, as everything was in the same vein.

Time[1] and time[2] again, the CJEU has ruled that the US stance of noncitizens having no standing on privacy issues is incompatible with EU law. Time[3] and time[4] again, the European Commission has negotiated a functionally identical agreement codified in executive orders and declared it “adequate” until the court could decide otherwise. Not even the Congress explicitly giving[5] the US government powers to compel (among others) EU subsidiaries of US multinationals, regardless of what EU law says, has changed the equation. Now there’s been a presidential election in the US that many in the EU are unhappy about. *Shocked Pikachu*

> [French MP Philippe] Latombe criticised the US-EU Data Privacy Framework (DPF) deal, saying it no longer served EU interests due to the US president’s “impulsive” nature.

Am I wrong to say that there’s something profoundly rotten in that statement with regards to the rule of law?

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Schrems#Schrems_I

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Schrems#Schrems_II

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EU%E2%80%93US_Privacy_Shield

[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EU%E2%80%93US_Data_Privacy_Fra...

[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CLOUD_Act

I don't see enough talk about reducing the amount of data collected in the first place. Even if it's kept within one jurisdiction, it can still be the target of a breach by a local criminal, a foreign spy, or a new government agency... Cameras on every street, cellular antenas on every car, biometrics for everything... It may vary from country to country, but an expansion on citizen data collection (in one area or another) seems commonplace across most governments, and usually with zero opposition in "the real world". And unlike products or platforms that you can chose to not use, there's hardly any escape from those.

It's interesting that there at least starts to be two opposing camp in the executive (some people in French government start to push for more sovereignty, some EU governments too, some MEPs, etc...)

Of course the rest of the administrations are not there yet, there are contracts to abide to, habits, etc... But there is the start of a general recognition that overdependence on the US is a liability at some level.

Also, it would incredibly more feasible to move IT infrastructure back and have some reign on data, then it would be to recover from our overdependence on China in terms of... Well, in terms of everything physical.

Which means that the first milestone would be to host pour data on "sovereign" data centers... Using East-Asian made hardware.

One thing at a time, I guess ?

Seen here:

https://www-senat-fr.translate.goog/compte-rendu-commissions...

================================================================

Quoting the translation:

Mr. Dany Wattebled , rapporteur . - Mr. Carniaux, as Director of Public and Legal Affairs, you represent Microsoft France before public decision-makers. Can you guarantee before our committee, under oath, that the data of French citizens entrusted to Microsoft via UGAP will never be transmitted, following an injunction from the American government, without the explicit agreement of the French authorities?

Mr. Anton Carniaux . - No, I cannot guarantee that, but, again, it has never happened before.

================================================================

Original:

M. Dany Wattebled, rapporteur. - Monsieur Carniaux, en tant que directeur des affaires publiques et juridiques, vous représentez Microsoft France auprès des décideurs publics. Pouvez-vous garantir devant notre commission, sous serment, que les données des citoyens français confiées à Microsoft via l'Ugap ne seront jamais transmises, à la suite d'une injonction du gouvernement américain, sans l'accord explicite des autorités françaises ?

M. Anton Carniaux. - Non, je ne peux pas le garantir, mais, encore une fois, cela ne s'est encore jamais produit.

================================================================

Thread on Mastodon:

https://toot.cat/@devopscats/114879479938557566

Honestly how hard can it be given Microsoft size (and AWS, and Google's) to mandate the intervention of a EU corporate entity to manage their IP in the region, full source code, EU cloud assets, encryption keys, EU-only support access, collect their royalties etc., but essentially act as a privacy buffer wholly unanswerable to any US head office or any obligations US law holds the company to wrt any EU person, its just a black hole that grants them the right to earn money and hold a large market share in the EU. The Chinese aren't afraid to do it.

I many time heard here in Europe not to trust Chinese appliances as these devices do listen to us… is #USA any different?

I think we need a lot more accessible disclosure on the subject for the public. Even beyond government services, products exposing one to the US should come with a big fat warning.

There's simply no option for digital sovereignty other than cultivating a strong domestic software industry. As the source details, much of this exposure is being done with full understanding of the risks and costs.

The article also refers to some report claiming that European solutions are "wrongly judged to be too costly or inefficient". I'd be interested to read it if anyone has a translation. Even for something as basic as word processing software, every case I've seen so for the alternatives quickly lands on "you have to accept rough edges because that's the cost of data sovereignty" - much easier for a hobbyist or politician to say than an IT director charged with making sure your organization runs well.

these seem like solved problems. in canada, many govt depts have procurement rules that state all data must be hosted nationally by a custodian subject to national or even provincial law, and this has been standard for decades. the firm I work for also doesn't use google or microsoft clouds for similar reasons.

the deeper problem is governments are not technology builders and cannot produce tech products because they have no unique ability to deliver anything anyone subject to them actually wants.

It's always the same issue.

If you want to move away from <insert US tech giant>, you either need to embrace Linux and open source software which requires the state's employees to learn a new "stack" of applications which means they need to be given appropriate training or you need to have you home grown solutions that are as easy to use as their US counterparts and were developed within the EU by the EU's member countries with the EU's values embedded in them.

The first solution is not going to happen, as Linux is still relatively unknown all things considered and I don't see the French government employees learning how to use this OS and/or the applications running on it by themselves.

Secondly in times of budget cuts like in France currently, the government is not about to rip all the Microsoft products off and replace them with something that would take years to transition to and cost a fortune to implement.

So that leaves the homegrown solution. Unfortunately the work to move off of Microsoft et al should have started 10 years ago but it hasn't. Europe has completely dropped the ball on tech and now it's coming back to bit it in the ass.

The Draghi report from last year was supposed to kick things into gear but we will be lucky to see anything coming through within the next 5 years and by this stage the US tech giants will have entrenched themselves even more in the EU.

I am sorry to say but this is a failure that will resonate for the many decades to come.

This site has a heavy pro Russian bias, see for example https://brusselssignal.eu/2025/07/europe-still-has-the-power...

Turns out it was founded by an American, who was arrested on suspicion of bias-motivated crimes, second-degree assault and harassment after attacking a reporter in the USA but currently living in Hungary and running some media org there, with ties to the right wing Fidesz party. And he is on paper as being the founded of brusselssignal.eu

His organization received a big loan from an undisclosed source to set up the Brussels organisation and it seems to made up of or advised by a rag tag of European right wing politicians.

The whole thing stinks of Russian meddling in Europe.

Sources https://www.szabadeuropa.hu/a/szazhetvennegy-millios-kolcson...

https://www.companyweb.be/company/0793608171/free-pub/231068...

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/12/28/us/patrick-thomas-egan-ac...