Microsoft says U.S. law takes precedence over Canadian data sovereignty.

The French Senate recently held a hearing on the role of procurement in promoting data sovereignty. During the meeting, several questions were asked, understandably, about data protection and privacy in relation to the intentions of tech giant Microsoft and US law.

Essentially, if the US government were to legally require Microsoft to share the data of a suspected non-US user, the company would have to comply with that request regardless of the legislation of the individual's country or state of origin, without having to seek authorization from local authorities. The study was conducted using a series of examples concerning France, but it can be inferred that the same treatment is used regardless of location.

Whether it's France, Canada, or any other country, this revelation is quite uncomfortable. The US CLOUD Act (Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data Act), the law that supposedly allows the US to act as mentioned above, applies to any US-based company, including Amazon and Google, two giants in the daily lives of most modern users.