Health Data and Sovereignty: Why We Reject Non-European Clouds

📅 published on 10/11/2025
⏱️ 3 min read

Strategic Ownership and Digital Sovereignty: What We Truly Protect

At Eryon, we do not process patients' personal health data. Our work involves content such as medication leaflets, dosage instructions, regulatory brochures, or scientific communication documents. While these do not pertain to individuals' private lives, they are highly strategic for healthcare companies. This information can reveal marketing strategies, sensitive medical formulations, key scientific data, or strategic decisions about a product launch. Losing control or entrusting their management to entities subject to another jurisdiction (such as the United States) can pose real economic and legal risks (NetExplorer, 2024). We have therefore made a clear choice: to refuse to store this data on non-European clouds, ensuring our French and European clients complete sovereignty over their documents and strategies.

A Matter of Trust and Control

When a company chooses a cloud provider, it must ensure that the stored data will be properly protected. If these servers are located in Europe and managed by European companies, they must comply with the GDPR, a stringent European law on data protection (CNIL, 2024). However, if this data is stored with an American provider (even if the servers are in Europe), another law comes into play: the Cloud Act. This law allows U.S. authorities to request access to data from companies like Microsoft or Amazon, even if the data is stored abroad (NetExplorer, 2024). This is a genuine legal gateway to strategic data. In other words, even if a French company uses a server in Paris, if that server is managed by a company subject to U.S. law, there is a risk that this data could be transferred to the United States (CNIL, 2024).

European Solutions Exist

Contrary to popular belief, it is entirely possible to use cloud services that are effective, modern, and 100% European. Companies like OVHcloud, Scaleway, Outscale, and Numspot are French businesses that offer secure solutions, compliant with all security requirements, and most importantly, protected from foreign laws (Lucas & Lemarchand, 2025). These providers are often SecNumCloud certified, a French qualification that guarantees complete control over the security chain (Iteanu, 2024). By choosing them, companies can protect their sensitive documents while remaining compliant with European regulatory and industrial requirements.

A Technical Choice, but Above All Strategic

Where are your internal documents stored? Who can access them? These questions are not just for IT departments. They concern strategy, industrial confidentiality, and the competitiveness of European companies (Devillers, 2024). By rejecting non-European clouds, we are choosing technology that is secure, transparent, and aligned with our clients' interests. It is a choice of common sense, but also responsibility. In a world where information is a valuable asset, maintaining control over your data means protecting your sovereignty and future.

Bibliographie

  • CNIL. (2024, 19 juillet). Cloud : les risques d'une certification européenne permettant l'accès des autorités étrangères aux données sensibles. https://www.cnil.fr/fr
  • Devillers, O. (2024, 7 février). La Cnil regrette l'incapacité de l'Europe à développer un cloud souverain. Localtis - Banque des Territoires.
  • Iteanu, A. (2024, 21 mai). Nouveau référentiel HDS : la souveraineté est-elle sauvée ? DSIH.
  • NetExplorer. (2024, 10 juin). Cloud Act : risques et alternatives pour les entreprises européennes.
  • Lucas, C., & Lemarchand, T. (2025, 17 juillet). Cloud souverain en santé : une utopie ou une nécessité ?Explorers (mc2i Groupe).