Proton has raised concerns regarding Europe’s reliance on United States technology corporations, arguing that heavy dependence on foreign tech giants poses significant risks to digital sovereignty, privacy, and economic competitiveness. The privacy-oriented firm warned that the concentration of essential digital infrastructure—including cloud computing and enterprise software—within a few dominant American platforms creates strategic vulnerabilities. To address these issues, Proton urged European policymakers to enforce antitrust frameworks, support domestic innovation, and foster an environment that encourages European businesses and public institutions to adopt local alternatives.
- Proton warned that European reliance on US tech infrastructure undermines regional digital sovereignty and security.
- The dominance of major American tech firms limits market competition and creates high switching barriers for European consumers and businesses.
- Concerns were highlighted regarding data governance and the jurisdiction of foreign laws over European citizen data stored on US-owned servers.
- The company called for stricter enforcement of European Union antitrust rules, including the Digital Markets Act, to curb anti-competitive practices.
- Advocates emphasized the need for Europe to invest in homegrown, privacy-first software and open-source technological alternatives.
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As I understand the deepest part in the subconscious of Europe is to protect the environment as much as possible in and around their neighbors. Until Europeans let go of that mindset, they will not be able to build any more new stuff than they are already doing. We are talking about WW style insatiable exploitation of natural resources in shortest time.
Interesting. I think the funding is lower – because fragmented access to market slows growth (and therefore big return at pace). Your entire stack, value prop, sales cycle and business can’t scale and deploy when the market and consumer base is fragmented.
Also I think there needs to be a strong incentive to switch stack (or a disincentive to stay). This is where legislation can make a difference.
Finally I reckon European open source software platforms – that improve interoperability between services is key. It’s so tough to break US monopoly because you have to compete with product ecosystems – not just compete on your product domain. From an investment pov that means more cost and more risk.
This is where the public sector, public funded and run open source tech can get good – particularly if they pay good salaries to attract talent over. You should always get paid more to serve your country, than a bunch of shareholders – but legislators need to make that call and create an environment where startups can compete on a level playing field – not against an entire product ecosystem.
so in 2026 we in EU are discussing that we do not even have chips. Wow… how late are we?
Do you bet Europe isn't dependent on American technology?! If you stop and think… did you find 1,000,000 times better AI technology?! This already exists in Europe/Spain. 😜 But this fact… I know because I stopped and thought. You don't know because you live in the "herd behavior" of the human species.
BTW… "digital sovereignty" has zero importance. The digital era is dead. The digital era/the binary computing is in the ICU (Intensive Care Unit) with palliative care. The future is P-S/S (Photonic-State/Space), PlatoniaDB, Internet V2, AI-V2, and more. And here… Europe/Spain is the MASTER . Don't speak about what you don't know. Let go of the "HERD BEHAVIOR" .
The trust in U.S corporations vapored 100% with Donald Trump.
If anyone is surprised, then they have been kept in the dark, or are making a profit from the situation…
How about Europe breaks free from illegal migration too?
Caffara conjures memories of a beloved former co-worker who was delightfully forthright—and funny! She was from Rome. A real gem.
Slaves to the US Capital talking about Sovereignity. lol.
Already using Proton and waiting on an European alternative to YT. Yes, US has too much influence over Europe and this has to balance. EU needs to adopt some of the things from China and a lot less from the US. I think united Europe has a great opportunity to become much more than just what it is now, we just have to stick together, not argue like in the past.
I'm an American and I love Cristina Caffarra! She's brilliant!
Don't use Proton they are expensive. You can also use proteo
People should stop using Google because Google is using ai to read all your personal staff including you email. And selling you data to databrokers
I'm not really sure who Cristina Caffara is, but I like her a lot! We need more of this! Great interview, thanks!
Im an american and I pay for the proton suite, protonvpn, lumo, protonmail. Though Lumo hallucinates a bit. Chinese people are smarter. Deepseek hallucinates less than Chatgpt and Lumo, but really even OpenAI appears to be run by chinese immigrabts. The majority of people there often have chinese names and speak english as a second language. But thats because the USA alread threw their own citizens under the bus a long time ago. Trump says "the american people" but actually means "The reall rich american people". Even if you are white he doesnt like you. Thats why I use european tech a lot likw ecosia and proton and waterfox browser. Im pretty sure the US tech sees even americans as sacrificial or disposable people.
Most everyone can make money off of working with the Ai. It is an empowering tech just like the internet was/is. It's not a race worth losing to your adversaries.
American here. Build that digital sovereignty ASAP. There is no bottom to how low they will go.
Watching from Canada with great interest – we all need to detach from US tech as fast as possible.
Well guess it's time to uninstall proton for a US VPN, if this is the world we live in no reason for us not to do it too.
Already using some non American tech. Please, please, give us more options!
Proton and Tuta are 100% right about the huge US tech dominance!
Europe shoud've been much smarter and independent by now and at least moved away from:
MicroSlop's products and services, like: Windows, Office, SharePoint, Office365.
To: Debian, Plasma, LibreOffice, NextCloud.
The lady speaker articulated it well. However, in the US a whole lot of innovation came out of the government. Think DARPA. Internet being a notable one. I don’t believe that the EU has a single cohesive or even a remotely collaborative organization to rival it. In addition the productization of ideas is unbelievably mature in the US. All of which is likely going to keep the gap open unless something dramatically changes in Europe.
Of course they do, they want more paying customers.
For Proton Mail, Proton’s own transparency report says it complied with 8,313 legal orders in 2025. If some of theses were from the U.S. Proton won't say.
The problem is funding!!
I am a developer, building tooling for self-sovereign database operations in Europe.
There are no funding opportunities. I take the risk of building without access to capital to hire staff and spend on marketing.
The EU needs to fund companies.
Europe, from what I saw when I was there over the past couple years, is really going downhill. Trump forcing them to pay for their own defense has really proven how unstable their societies and economies are. Europe: the land where even the men are women! They care for their looks and dress so much and smell so good! 🤣I'm not a supporter of Trump and am repelled by the "manosphere," but we're seeing what Europe truly is or has evolved into since WWII, and it isn't interesting at all and in fact is pretty pathetic.
As an American I want the same for Europe, to build out their own infrastructure and products. I also want US companies to pull back on hiring abroad.
People are afraid of Russian and Chinese dominance, never dreamed that the US dominance could be bad, till 2025. History is unforgiving, it always punishes wrong political decisions very hard.
Ha. Yes I’m sure europeans would much rather be dependent on China 😂😂😂
Good luck
Not one mention of ASML in this interview? Currently, the US could not cut Europe off from chips, because Europe makes the machines that print the chips. As time goes on and China gets this same type of technology that might change, but ASML's dominance is what's allowing these digital sovereignty conversations to take place. If they didn't hold such a dominant position, the US would have already strangled the entire European tech and software industry.
Veo muy difícil la soberanía digital en europa, los veo demasiado dependientes de Google meta Microsoft etc…
I don't understand what is the problem with American products. The EU has no money full stop. We have to fund pensions. I don't mind kill switch.
The government that gave us the quagmire of GPDR will never allow a large tech company to emerge and compete with the rest of the world. The EU has fined tech companies over $7B in the past two years alone. The EU won't let people use AC in their homes, so how can it build a significant data center industry? The EU is all about control at the expense of innovation.
capitalism is ruining everything, good luck getting out of that soon before earth is still habitable
China “innovating” new and exciting way, interesting way of saying THEY STEALING!!!!!
Europe is a big market, but also 27 small markets. Without paying attention, Europe has taken the lazy way and now she is completely dependent on the US stack. To develop an alternative, 27 groups need to agree. Who is going to fund it and who is going to develop it and benefit from the investment.
I hope Europe offers an alternative to common every day services like Email, messaging and cloud storage.
You can skip social media it’s just brain rot.
Competition is good for everyone.
Cristina is correct regulations can only go so far. American companies will always try to find loop hole in regulations. The best way to wean Europe off US tech is to create your own and compete with a better product. This will force American companies to compete.
Io non comprendo una Cosa con 450 million di persone pionieri della scienza grandi inventori, grandi scopritori ! E' mai possibile che tutto il blocco EUropeo sia cosi indietro sull AI ho su alcune tech rispetto all America?! Qual' e' il problema perche' in Eueopa non eccelle in queste cose ???!
Proton wouldn't exist if it wasn't profiting off googles dominance. It's providing an alternative because it's profitable not because it cares about your privacy 😂
Europeans also want to build their own “Great Wall of China’s Internet,” just a few years ago they were still spouting nonsense.hhh
Europe has a massive regulation on digital and technology market which pushes many people away from developing in Europe and prefers countries such as the United States with little regulation. If Europe wants a prospering technology and digital space they need to deregulate the market to be in competitive with the rest of the world. Also we need to stop calling everything digital as part of technology it needs to be differentiate as computing for software, digital for online services, and technology reserve for hardware the use of technology in this cases needs a massive reformation. We need to start adopting the words computing, digital, hardware, and software to break apart a larger categories in technologies to make it less complicated.