What’s behind Europe’s efforts to ditch U.S. software in favor of sovereign tech

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is far less vocal about his worldviews than Palantir’s Alex Karp. And yet, France is taking steps to reduce its reliance on Windows , while its domestic intelligence agency recently renewed its contract with the increasingly controversial data analytics company. This paradox is representative of Europe’s messy breakup with U.S. tech. After painful realizations that it comes with strings attached, governments across the region are looking to rely less on American providers . But the steps taken so far have been uneven and often reactive. The CLOUD Act changed the equation One change Europe is reacting to dates back to the first Trump presidency. Enacted in 2018, the CLOUD Act forces U.S.-based tech companies to comply with law enforcement requests for data even if the information is stored abroad. This means that even servers located on European soil are no longer enough reassurance when critical data is concerned. Of all the information that governments sit on, health data is arguably among the most sensitive. Still, the CLOUD Act’s extraterritorial reach didn’t stop the U.K. from striking deals with the likes of Google, Microsoft, and Palantir around data from its National Health Service (NHS) during the pandemic. But if critics have their way, it may end up following France’s lead. …