Microsoft admitted to the French Senate that it is unable to fully protect customer data in Europe from US government requests under the Cloud Act, even despite efforts to minimize such risks.
Microsoft admitted to the French Senate that it is unable to fully protect customer data in Europe from US government requests under the Cloud Act, even despite efforts to minimize such risks.
This became known during hearings in the French Senate, where Microsoft France’s legal director Anton Carneau stated that the company «cannot guarantee» that the data of French users will not be transferred to American authorities if an official request is received. This is reported by The Register.
According to Carneau, the company usually challenges unreasonable requests in court, citing experience in resisting such requests dating back to the Obama administration. Microsoft strives to make requests «precisely worded» and, where possible, redirects them to customers themselves. However, if a request is deemed legitimate, the corporation is obliged to provide the data.
When asked by French senators whether Microsoft could guarantee that the data would not be transferred without the consent of the French government, Carnot replied: «No, I can’t.» At the same time, he stressed that nothing like this had ever happened before.
It is worth noting that the Cloud Act, passed in the US in 2018, allows US authorities to access data stored on the servers of US companies, regardless of the country where those servers are located. This raises questions about data sovereignty in EU countries.
A number of market players, including AWS, also explain that the provision of data is possible only by court order and with a substantiated request. However, experts point out that the issue is not only in the legal procedure, but also in geopolitical risks. Calls are increasingly being made in the EU to create a local cloud infrastructure that is independent of the US.
We also reported on how Microsoft has struck a deal with Vaulted Deep to store 4.9 million metric tons of carbon by burying human and agricultural waste 1.5 km deep in the ground to offset emissions generated by powering artificial intelligence.
