Microsoft Says U.s. Law Takes Precedence Over Canadian Data Sovereignty

This is why some companies have a separate org for eu data where no us citizen has access. the data is in the eu and when the company is told to provide it the eu employees whe are the only ones with the passwords to get it are legally required to refuse. The company may be required to fire those employees - but that is all they can do, and eu employee protection laws will jump in the middle. the next step is an international diplomatic issuse that I refuse to speculate on.

I don't understand this idea that Microsoft would follow US law in this case, since doing so would be espionage, and would lead to such long prison sentences for those who did it.

Obviously we've ended the death penalty for all crimes, but I think the police will shoot fleeing people who have participated in things like this.

Being part of an organization that says they will do this is also obviously grounds for being deported.

Don't think about participating in anything like this unless you have diplomatic immunity, because European states have no reason to go easy on someone who does this.

The true title is,

Microsft, says US law takes precidence over Canadian law.

Microsoft says eh?, it's quite litteraly a declaration of war via lawfare, with the unspoken part bieng that Canada has already been compromised.

Just think how this is going down EVERYWHERE else in the world

This sounds to me like Microsoft is saying they cannot legally do business in the EU.

And there are a lot of companies and other organizations that use cloud services from American companies. All of them have to migrate away, because American companies will be unable to fulfill their contract and obey EU law.

That's got to be devastating.

> Ultimately, the only likely way to avoid the risk of U.S. legal requests superseding Canadian or other international law is not to use the products of US-based organizations or to keep them disconnected entirely from the Internet.

I feel concern about Canadian courts using Microsoft teams, where I would assume everything is recorded and who has access? If I need the court system I'm automatically roped into a EULA I would not normally agree to, and where is the data kept and who has access to it?

This is exactly why data sovereignty matters. Big tech companies will always prioritize their home country's laws. That's fine, but businesses need to understand what they're signing up for. For healthcare and financial services especially, knowing exactly where your data is processed and under which jurisdiction isn't optional - it's a basic requirement.