France pulls millions of medical records out of the Microsoft cloud over privacy concerns

Concerns over US legislation that gives American companies access to data stored in Europe were the trigger for this change

Pro

Image: Angela Bena via Pexels

28 April 2026

Driven by Europe’s ambition for digital sovereignty, France is withdrawing the medical records of millions of citizens from Microsoft’s cloud infrastructure. This decision reflects a broader trend across the continent to reduce reliance on American tech giants in the public sector.

The French national Health Data Hub, which contains sensitive medical information on millions of people, is now hosted by Scaleway, a French subsidiary of telecoms group Iliad. The platform was initially built on Microsoft Azure in 2019, but encountered significant opposition from the French data protection authority because of concerns over privacy and security risks.

French regulators argued that even if the data were stored in France, US authorities could still potentially gain access to it under US law, as long as the provider remained an American company. This prompted France to introduce legislation in 2024 requiring national control over the storage of sensitive data. The migration to Scaleway is seen as a crucial step towards ensuring greater control and security for this essential source of health information.

Similar measures across Europe

Hela Ghariani, director of the Health Data Platform, stressed that the move strengthens trust and security for all users while at the same time accelerating research and innovation within France and Europe. The system, which is expected to be fully operational between the end of 2026 and early 2027, will contain the medical records of tens of millions of citizens.

This shift mirrors similar measures across Europe. The German state of Schleswig-Holstein is replacing Microsoft tools on government workstations, while Denmark is embracing open-source alternatives such as LibreOffice in parts of the public sector. The European Commission is further reinforcing this trend by awarding a major cloud contract to a consortium that includes Scaleway and other European providers.

Business AM