The Splitblog in October – SovereigniWHAT?
“Digital sovereignty” has become a real buzzword. But what is actually behind it? We will shed light on these and other questions this month at the request of our Managing Director, Friedrich.
The term “digital sovereignty” has probably been encountered by everyone at some point. But do we actually know what that means? In a political sense, the word “sovereignty” means the independence of a state from others, as well as its self-determination. “Digital sovereignty” therefore means that the state or local companies should be independent of solutions from other countries in the digital sector.
Why is this important?
As is well known, many of the relevant software solutions come from the USA. In politically calm times, this is largely unproblematic. But what if your own data protection and data security requirements differ significantly from those of the manufacturer’s location? What legal principles apply in this case? These questions have become highly topical, at the latest since the change of power in the USA. Although there are various agreements and legal regulations on transatlantic data transfer, these are not completely legally secure. Especially since the basic understanding of data protection in Europe and the USA differs fundamentally.
Growing uncertainty
In February 2025, Bitkom published a study showing that the trust of German companies in international partners and software manufacturers is declining. This is contrasted by a strong dependence on imported digital technologies. Details on the study can be found here: https://www.bitkom.org/Studienberichte/2025/Digitale-Souveraenitaet
Increasing demand
The desire for digital sovereignty in Germany is therefore growing. What’s more, at the state level it is not just a desire, but a necessity. Of course, the major corporations do not want to spoil their business on the European market and have promptly come up with something: to give their own products the “sovereign” label.
Is it sovereign inside where it says sovereign on the outside?
The solution of the well-known providers seems to be simple. The data centers used should be located on European soil. This means that the data remains in the EU and is therefore safe and protected. But unfortunately it is not that simple. The Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data (CLOUD) Act allows US authorities to access European customer data even extraterritorially. The hoped-for possibility of staying with the familiar software products and still remaining digitally sovereign is therefore not available to either the state or companies. This was also admitted by the Chief Legal Officer of Microsoft France at a hearing before the French Senate (read here: https://www.heise.de/news/Nicht-souveraen-Microsoft-kann-Sicherheit-von-EU-Daten-nicht-garantieren-10494684.html)
So the only option remains to look around for trustworthy, local providers. And preferably before it’s too late.
The good news
We at Splitbot have been focusing on digital sovereignty and privacy by design for years. With KOSMO, we have developed a reliable enterprise chatbot – made and hosted in Germany.
Read more on the subject, for example, at https://www.cloudcomputing-insider.de/warum-europaeische-datenraeume-us-zugriff-nicht-ausschliessen-a-baa6db7b040dd0cf5026442f4c9d10f1/
