France embraces Google, Microsoft in quest to safeguard sensitive data

Some of France’s most sensitive state and corporate data can be safely stored using the cloud computing technology developed by Alphabet’s Google and Microsoft, if it is licensed to French companies, the government said on Monday.

The comment, part of strategic plan laid out by French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire and two other ministers, acknowledges US technological superiority in the field and contrasts with previous calls from European politicians for fully homegrown alternatives.

Google and Microsoft, along with market leader Amazon, dominate the realm of data storage worldwide, fuelling concerns in Europe over the risk of surveillance by the United States in the wake of the adoption of the US CLOUD Act of 2018.