{"id":106680,"date":"2025-12-16T14:55:48","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T19:55:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=106680"},"modified":"2025-12-16T23:21:04","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T04:21:04","slug":"microsofts-investment-in-canadian-ai-infrastructure-puts-data-at-risk-brock-expert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2025\/12\/microsofts-investment-in-canadian-ai-infrastructure-puts-data-at-risk-brock-expert\/","title":{"rendered":"Microsoft\u2019s investment in Canadian AI infrastructure puts data at risk: Brock expert"},"content":{"rendered":"

Microsoft\u2019s recent announcement<\/a><\/u>\u00a0of its plan to invest $7.5 billion in Canada\u2019s artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure over the next two years placed a strong emphasis on protecting the country\u2019s digital sovereignty by ensuring that data is stored locally.<\/p>\n

But for Brock University data governance expert Blayne Haggart, this claim relies on a broad misconception of what digital sovereignty looks like.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the digital space, sovereignty isn\u2019t determined by where your data centres are located, but by which company runs the servers that make up the cloud,\u201d says the Professor of Political Science. \u201cMicrosoft admitted in a June hearing before the French Senate that they have to follow U.S. law under the Cloud Act, which gives the U.S. the authority to obtain digital data held by U.S.-based tech companies, no matter where in the world this data is stored. Securing digital sovereignty is a promise the company can\u2019t deliver.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though any government demands for data could be fought in U.S. court, Haggart says this is no assurance of protection.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven if Microsoft were to fight an honest court battle, they could lose and data would be vulnerable,\u201d he says. \u201cBut the U.S. government can also threaten or exert pressure to make companies give up this data, as was the case with the National Security Agency\u2019s secret surveillance later made public by Edward Snowden.\u201d<\/p>\n

Haggart says all Canadians, from individual citizens and those working in the private sector to universities and governments, need to be aware they cannot rely on an American technology company\u2019s \u201cpromise not to peek\u201d at sensitive research, policy and proprietary data.<\/p>\n

Instead, he suggests Canadians seek out or develop technology alternatives to reduce dependency on U.S. software companies.<\/p>\n

While he acknowledges that it might be a difficult process, he believes investing in the development of homegrown technology and diversifying technology products would be a sensible use of government spending to ensure nationally secure digital infrastructure.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to start developing in-house expertise and in-house systems that can replicate the functionality of what we get from Microsoft or Google and working with other companies, particularly in Europe, to build out digital services and network capacity that is more independent from the U.S.\u00a0to create a true alternative,\u201d he says. \u201cThis would be a huge challenge, but it\u2019s not impossible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Overall, Haggart says Canadians need to understand what is at stake and how their data might be used or accessed as U.S. technology companies ramp up efforts to increase adoption of AI around the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to have a more mature discussion about what sovereignty actually means in the digital age, and basically it comes down to control,\u201d he says. \u201cIf you don\u2019t control the software, you don\u2019t control the data.\u201d<\/p>\n

Haggart notes the need to improve understandings of digital regulatory policies and tech regulation is a key focus of an upcoming Digital Regulation in the Public Interest symposium<\/a><\/u>\u00a0taking place at Brock University in March.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe symposium is designed to bring together emerging and established scholars to discuss issues of digital regulation, which are becoming more and more salient, including regarding questions of digital sovereignty,\u201d he says. \u201cThere\u2019s a greater need for policy-makers and for all Canadians to understand them as important policy areas.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Microsoft\u2019s recent announcement\u00a0of its plan to invest $7.5 billion in Canada\u2019s artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure over the next two years placed a strong emphasis on protecting the country\u2019s digital sovereignty by ensuring that data is stored locally.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":106682,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4767,1,38],"tags":[9065,3445,4104,522,42,31],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106680"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106680"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106680\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":106690,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106680\/revisions\/106690"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}