Microsoft is responding to mounting “geopolitical and trade volatility” between the US administration and governments in Europe by pledging privacy safeguards for customers worried about using American hyperscalers, and vowing to fight the US government in court to protect Euro customers’ data if needed.
Under Trump 2.0, some Europeans fear that storing their data in the bit barns of Microsoft, Google and AWS is no longer safe, a concern voiced to The Register in late February by Bert Hubert, a part time technical advisor to the Dutch Electoral Council.
Fuck proprietary US tech products. Proprietary European tech products are only marginally better because they have to abide by European laws. Europe should not only push for European products, but also for open source and open data. Hopping from one sizzlingfrying pan into another one with a small flame underneath is but one step. Eventually we have to jump out of frying pans altogether and away from the fire or proprietary software.
For example geographical data (cadastral, soil quality, air quality, public transport routes, public transport schedules, official hiking routes, …), statistical data, publicly funded research, data coming out of publicly funded anything actually (internet speeds, crime stats, police brutality, parliamentary attendance, and so on), and a bunch more. That shouldn’t be published on proprietary platforms for a fee, squirrelled away in a physical archive only accessible by travelling there, shouldn’t require a freedom of information request, or whatever else is put in the way.
Similar to the “Public Money, Public Code” campaign.
