Most of us don’t worry too much about where our data goes. We store documents in the cloud, collaborate online with Slack and Zoom and rely on platforms like Microsoft 365, Amazon Web Services and Google Workspace.

These tools are efficient, convenient and deeply embedded in how universities, businesses and governments operate. Our everyday digital life also involves online banking and payment systems, streaming platforms like Netflix and Disney , news and social media platforms, loyalty programs, fitness apps and smart-home services.

Many of these services are developed, hosted or routed outside Canada. They are part of global systems shaped by governance frameworks, commercial interests and geopolitical dynamics.

This raises simple but uncomfortable questions: Who controls the systems through which our data flows? Who can access our data and how is is used? The answers to these questions impact our privacy, as well as the autonomy of our institutions and the economic competitiveness and sovereignty of our nation.

Data sovereignty is not just a technical issue — it is a collective challenge that all Canadians need to start taking seriously.

Dual-use technologies

In the United States, the 2018 CLOUD Act means that the government can demand access to data held by U.S.-based companies, even if that data belongs to foreigners and is stored on servers outside the U.S.

Read more: How Eurostack could offer Canada a route to digital independence from the United States

This point was confirmed in an exchange between Microsoft and the French Senate, in which Microsoft admitted it cannot oppose an American injunction targeting data hosted in France.

This is why countries like France are moving some public services away from U.S.-based platforms........

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