In a digital world where data has become strategic assets, ensuring their sovereignty is more essential than ever. This issue is particularly sensitive in regulated sectors such as healthcare, where confidentiality and compliance are non-negotiable.
With the enactment of the Cloud Act in the United States and GDPR in Europe, a tension arises: these two major regulations embody opposing visions of data management. So, how can one navigate this? And most importantly, is health data hosted in the cloud truly protected?
The Cloud Act: Controversial Extraterritorial Legislation
The Cloud Act (Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data Act), enacted in 2018, allows U.S. authorities to request access to data stored by U.S.-based companies, even if this data is hosted outside the United States.
This concretely means that if you use cloud services from providers like Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS), or Google Cloud, your data, even when stored in France, can be accessed by U.S. authorities without prior notice. This reality is hardly compatible with the data protection promise offered by GDPR.
GDPR: A Strict Framework with Legal Limitations
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), in effect since 2018, has placed Europe at the forefront of personal data protection. It mandates, among other things:
- transparency in data usage
- data hosting within the EU
- obligation to notify in case of a breach
But if your host is subject to the Cloud Act, GDPR is no longer sufficient to guarantee full protection. Hence the need for a sovereign response, both legal and technical.
Why Data Sovereignty is Essential in Healthcare
In the healthcare sector, digital sovereignty is not a luxury. It is a prerequisite for trust: that of patients, practitioners, partners, and regulators. A leak of clinical or regulatory data could not only harm privacy but also lead to heavy financial and reputational sanctions.
Eryon: Sovereign AI for Compliance
At Eryon, we have made sovereignty a priority. Our solutions, including EryonCite, our SaaS platform dedicated to medical and regulatory review, are hosted exclusively in France, on secure infrastructures.
Our AI relies on French models (such as those from Mistral) and does not transmit any data to services subject to the Cloud Act. We thus guarantee our clients total control over their sensitive content.
How to Protect Your Data Concretely?
- Choose a sovereign host (outside the Cloud Act, SecNumCloud certified if possible)
- Ensure end-to-end encryption of sensitive data
- Evaluate your providers: are they subject to extraterritorial jurisdiction?
- Collaborate with committed actors, like Eryon, who integrate sovereignty and performance