France says non to Office 365 and Google Workspace in school

[fiza]

From The Register

 

https://www.theregister.com/2022/11/22/france_no_windows_google/

[sigma]

Germany said Nein back in 2019

 

https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2019/07/17/germany-bans-schools-from-using-tech-giants-clouds/

[Michael]

Two questions come to mind -

 

- What are French and German enterprises using?

- What are the respective Governments using?

 

Let me guess, a Windows 98 file server and open source email?

[Mako]

Germany said Nein back in 2019

 

https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2019/07/17/germany-bans-schools-from-using-tech-giants-clouds/

 

Ah yes, known as Twenty Nein-teen...

 

[mthomas08]

From The Register

 

https://www.theregister.com/2022/11/22/france_no_windows_google/

 

Slightly misleading headline though isn't it?

 

Reading through the article - they said no to the 'free version' of these systems and the paid versions could still be an option. The article discusses GDPR and complying with EU policies and Microsoft aiming to have it setup by end of 2022 (apparently Google are already setup). A few things about US > EU data links being resolved for privacy.

 

If I'm reading this right....

[Andrew_C]

Well, yes, but -

 

This applies to other free offerings like Google Workspace for Education. Paid versions of these cloud services might be an option if they hadn't already been disallowed based on worries about data safety.

[PotNoodleTech]

Interesting. What on earth are they going to use instead?

[Michael]

What is it the paid for services offer the free for education services don't offer? GDPR is GDPR, regardless of the version used.

[jthompson]

What is it the paid for services offer the free for education services don't offer? GDPR is GDPR, regardless of the version used.

They offer a slightly-less-close-to-zero chance of a domestic entrant making inroads into the market.

[free780]

Germany have been very nervous about cloud. I used a help desk product who went cloud only the German customers were not happy. They insisted on an on prem product. Eventually the company u turned.

 

Is the alternative to Office 365 to be 100% on prem. Have fun patching exchange every month.

[PotNoodleTech]

Aaah it's because French Gov has been pumping money into internal cloud companies like it's going out of fashion (1.8 billion last year).

 

Now it makes sense. Nothing to do with GDPR, alll about removing entry barriers for french cloud companies.

[sigma]

This is GDPR though https://bestofprivacy.com/eu/germany-forces-a-microsoft-365-ban-due-to-privacy-concerns/

[Michael]

The thing is, how far do you want to go?

 

- They'll need an EU OS - client and server

- They'll need an EU search engine

- They'll need an EU enterprise email and file storage solution

 

Easy, I'll make a start this weekend

[dmj]

There's a bit more about why German lawyers say MS is in breach of GDPR here: https://www.theregister.com/2022/11/30/office_365_faces_more_gdpr/

 

Apparently MS changed the terms and conditions in Sept 2022 so that schoolchildrens telemetry data is processed by them - and that the US government has access to that data. That is a GDPR breach.

[JRA]

I had often wondered how the GDPR vs CLOUD Act business would work itself out when it came to an inevitable head.

 

"Messily" seems to be the answer!

[dmj]

It looks like there's going to be a new EU/US 'data flow' deal that would prevent the US spying on EU data, allowing the use of MS/Google data in the US again.

I guess that would still be a technical GDPR violation in the UK as the UK isn't going to part of that - not that the ICO are ever going to come after anyone about it.

 

https://www.wsj.com/articles/eu-to-advance-its-data-flow-deal-after-u-s-makes-surveillance-changes-11670927692