Time Travel via Fax Machines in the Here and Now
In a significant revelation, a decade-long investment lag in digital technology has been identified in Germany. This lag has left the country with little choice but to rely on US monopolists for its digital needs, a situation that has raised concerns about security, legal issues, and strategic dependencies.
The Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) is currently working with US companies like Google Cloud to develop cloud solutions for public administration in Germany. However, the Society for Computer Science has expressed concerns about this reliance on US companies for cloud services.
One of the main concerns is the long-term technological dependency on US companies’ software and infrastructures. Despite data being hosted physically in German data centers, the underlying technology and control remain American, creating a potential risk for limited technological autonomy for Germany.
Another concern is the legal and privacy risks associated with US laws such as the CLOUD Act and FISA, which allow US authorities to access data regardless of its physical location. This conflicts with European data protection regulations like GDPR, raising significant legal and privacy concerns for German entities using these services.
The Society for Computer Science has also warned that the contracts negotiated by the BSI do not address the issue of cloud availability. There is a risk that Trump could turn off the lights (shut down cloud services) at any time, further emphasizing the vulnerability of relying on US companies.
Despite some European cloud providers offering GDPR-compliant and “sovereign” cloud services that keep data within EU borders, they currently lack the scale and maturity to meet complex requirements of large public bodies like the Bundeswehr. This technological gap, coupled with US firms having a significant head start, has led to reliance on foreign providers in the short to medium term.
This dependency also generates business and regulatory challenges such as exposure to foreign laws, legal uncertainties, compliance conflicts, reputational risks, and vulnerability to geopolitical tensions or sanctions. European efforts to foster sovereign cloud infrastructure are often hindered by excessive regulation and fragmented initiatives, which slow local innovation and impede scaling European alternatives, indirectly favoring US dominance.
In summary, the key concerns include legal risks from US extraterritorial laws, long-term technological dependency on US companies, weakness of current European alternatives, conflict with EU data protection standards, and regulatory and market dynamics unfavorable to European cloud ecosystem growth.
The goal of this collaboration is to achieve "digital sovereignty" in Germany. However, the current state of affairs poses fundamental challenges to Germany’s digital sovereignty, making independent control over technology and data governance difficult to achieve. The catch-up race in digital technology has begun in Germany, and it is crucial to address these concerns to ensure a secure and sovereign digital future for the country.
[1] [Source 1] [2] [Source 2] [3] [Source 3] [4] [Source 4] [5] [Source 5]
One concern is the long-term technological dependence on US companies' software and infrastructures, as the underlying technology and control remain American, creating a potential risk for limited technological autonomy for Germany (data-and-cloud-computing, technology). Another concern is the legal and privacy risks associated with US laws, such as the CLOUD Act and FISA, which allow US authorities to access data regardless of its physical location, conflicts with European data protection regulations like GDPR, raising significant legal and privacy concerns for German entities using these services (legal issues, technology).
