this post was submitted on 02 Dec 2025
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Swiss data protection officers have warned public bodies not to use cloud services from industry hyperscalers Microsoft, Amazon, and Google, due to a lack of true end-to-end encryption.

This comes as many SaaS vendors, especially those falling under the US Cloud Act, could be required to hand over data to US authorities, even if it’s stored in Switzerland.

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[–] FireWire400@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

That's like quitting Spotify now because you just realised it still doesn't offer decent sound quality. It's far from the only reason to quit using it and not a very good one.

[–] ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world 13 points 14 hours ago

They should ditch Microsoft 365 due to lack of not sucking balls.

[–] Babalugats@feddit.uk 65 points 20 hours ago (4 children)

What's happening in Switzerland? Flipping and flopping for the past year. I welcome this latest news, and the similar news yesterday, hopefully it is infectious to the rest of Europe but it completely contradicts things that have been proposed for the last few months, then the sudden change. I wonder did Trump push too hard:

May 14 2025 - Proposed Swiss surveillance law ‘identical to Russia’

June 13 2025 - "A war against online anonymity" – why Switzerland wants to change its surveillance law and what's at stake

September 11 2025 - Swiss government looks to undercut privacy tech, stoking fears of mass surveillance

November 15 2025 - Switzerland plans surveillance worse than US

November 27 2025 - Switzerland: Data Protection Officers Recommend Broad Cloud Ban for Authorities

..

[–] helvetpuli@sopuli.xyz 2 points 1 hour ago

It's almost like we're not a single monolithic entity or something. Go figure.

[–] freeman@feddit.org 17 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago)

We have a lot of different political and government bodies. Like the "checks and balances" the US had. So when you read "Switzerland wants to..." it could be:

  • A survey of people living in Switzerland
  • A initiative (an official political vote done by the swiss citicens)
  • One big or multiple parties signing an agreement
  • A group of cantons or communal legislative or executive politicians
  • A group of semi-official people (like the conference of all the cantons data protection officers ("Kantonale Datenschützer", keine Ahnung wie all das Zeug auf Englisch heisst, Hilfe)
  • Our parliament or a comitee in it
  • Our other parliament or a comitee in it
  • The federal court
  • The federal chancelor
  • The federal government
  • And sometimes internetusers even mix some company into the bag, for example Proton.

I probably forgot a few and misspelt a lot but you get the idea. And all of them are different elected or appointed persons, with their own opinions.

[–] Passerby6497@lemmy.world 37 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

"Hey, you can't mass surveil our people, that's our job!"

[–] AFaithfulNihilist@lemmy.world 15 points 17 hours ago

In fairness a government should be the only entity surveilling people in its own borders under most any circumstances.

I'm pretty opposed to most any kind of surveillance outside of warranted due process, and I don't think that any domestic surveillance needs privacy for longer than it takes to do an investigation and prosecution.

It's when governments are allowed to do things in secret and outside of the law that the whole concept of the law is undermined.

[–] driving_crooner@lemmy.eco.br 2 points 15 hours ago

They want to spy on their people and protect their corporate interests.

[–] george@feddit.org 32 points 19 hours ago (2 children)

Aren’t they also the ones trying to pass laws to remove the encryption from Proton/Threema and so on?

[–] helvetpuli@sopuli.xyz 1 points 1 hour ago

It's almost like we're a multiparty democracy or something.

The press and others tend to report proposals by one part or another as though they have already been passed into law. I think it makes for better headlines.

And Andy Yen uses it for what agenda he has, like moving into cheaper German data centres or whatever.

[–] ramble81@lemmy.zip 20 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

The cynic in me says this is an attempt to force private keys in-country and Swiss Datacenters which would then be subject to their laws and could be easier subpoenaed

[–] holomorphic@lemmy.world 3 points 2 hours ago

That's not how the swiss government works.

Here the data protection officers are mostly independent of the rest of the government and are just doing their (somewhat hopeless) job. Of course "warn[ing] public bodies" is about all they are can do.

[–] Babalugats@feddit.uk 14 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Windscribe are a bit late to the game -https://x.com/windscribecom/status/1995619967996494334

They are twittering today quoting an article that was published 3+ months ago.

Proton is moving out of Switzerland because of their new surveillance laws. So much for Switzerland being some bastion of privacy huh? That makes Canada a better place for a VPN. Stop drinking the marketing koolaid.

Judging by the direction that Switzerland seems to be going, I am guessing (I could be wayyyy wrong) that Swiss privacy companies are going to be still effective for people outside of Switzerland, soon to be completely free from US big tech spying. Canada are in the 5 eyes, whereas Switzerland aren't even mentioned in the 14 eyes.

As for Canada being a better place for the Privacy or a VPN, I think Windscribe need to stop drinking their own nonsense.

[–] jof@lemmy.world 6 points 18 hours ago

Damn. I remember seeing a Reddit AMA when I first came across Protonmail some 7-odd years ago with the Protonmail CEO saying something along the lines of "we don't plan on moving out of Switzerland because other country's intelligence agencies concern us more than the Swiss intelligence" and I thought that was a good take. Hell, I still do in lieu of everything going on.

I wonder what happens now that they will be "physically diversifying across Europe".