GrapheneOS bails on OVHcloud over France’s privacy stance
French cloud outfit OVHcloud took another hit this week after GrapheneOS, a mobile operating system, said it was ditching the company’s servers over concerns about France’s approach to digital privacy.
The project posted on X (formerly Twitter): “We no longer have any active servers in France and are continuing the process of leaving OVH.”
“France isn’t a safe country for open source privacy projects,” the group explained. “They expect backdoors in encryption and for device access too. Secure devices and services are not going to be allowed.
“We don’t feel safe using OVH for even a static website with servers in Canada/US via their Canada/US subsidiaries.”
While OVH did not provide The Register with a response, the company’s boss, Octave Klaba, posted: “Guys, we like what you develop. It’s great!
“But the way you explain your issue is confusing. Reading your tweet, you can imagine something bad happened to your servers in OVHcloud. It’s not the case. Nothing happened.”
Klaba appears to have missed the point. The issue has nothing to do with OVHcloud’s servers on a technical level (although it is less than five years since a fire took out its Strasbourg datacenter), but is related to perceived problems with France’s position on digital privacy and sovereignty.
France is a supporter of the proposed EU “Chat Control” legislation, which could require providers to open a backdoor to their services to enable authorities to scan user content. In October, Germany said “nein” to the proposals.
Then there is the issue of sovereignty. OVHcloud is embroiled in legal action in Canada over data held on French servers. If the company is forced to hand over the data and the authorities can bypass existing treaties, that could set a dangerous precedent.
While OVHcloud has yet to comment on the situation, the boss of a UK cloud provider, Civo, told The Register: “If the Canadian position is upheld, it will force the industry to rethink how sovereignty is protected in practice.”
In the case of GrapheneOS, the rethink has involved a migration away from OVHcloud’s servers.
According to another privacy-obsessed organization, Proton, “France’s stance against privacy-first companies and open-source projects sends a broader message: operate here and give us access to your data, or leave.”
While the legal arguments continue, companies like OVHcloud are in a difficult position as doubt is cast over protestations of data protection and sovereignty. As Mark Boost, CEO of Civo, said: “Sovereignty is not a slogan. It is about giving customers certainty over who governs their data and confidence that it stays within the legal system they trust.”
GrapheneOS clearly does not trust France. ®
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