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America Doesn’t Need to Invade Canada. It Has Our Data

From cloud servers to AI patents, digital dependence is becoming a new form of power

Earlier this year, the French government announced it would stop using Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and any other United States–based video conferencing platforms by 2027 and begin using French-based Visio.

The decision came after Anton Carniaux, director of public and legal affairs for Microsoft France, testified before the French Senate that, under the US Cloud Act, Microsoft could be forced to hand over data from any country, regardless of where it is stored. Austria, Germany, and Switzerland are also racing to find alternatives to US-based technology.

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Digital sovereignty, which is the protection and control of Canadian data, is quickly becoming the most prominent issue in this country. Amid ongoing strained relations with our southern neighbour, Canadians now face an uncertain digital future. Policy makers have the daunting task of figuring out how to keep our data safe while trying to move away from prominent US software. What’s at stake is Canada’s tech future and the safety of personal Canadian data. Protecting it may sound simple, but there are many different aspects to it.

“It’s also about not being able to control who gets access. Do we have infrastructure to manage our assets?” asks Teresa Scassa, a law professor at the University of Ottawa and the Canada research chair in information law and policy. “If we don’t have sovereignty, our access to data stored on offshore servers could be lost,” she says.

Digital sovereignty fits into three categories: infrastructure, data, and policy. Infrastructure relates to where data is stored, data covers how it’s used, and policy relates to whether a company’s values reflect Canadian values.

Scassa, who has been looking at digital sovereignty as part of her research on regulatory changes in technology, says one question is whether we’re sure we can collect and control the data we need to manage the resources we use. “For example, if we rely on US-based mapping software or satellite data from foreign sources, how would that impact us if we lost access? Would we feel confident that we have all the geospatial data we need in........

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