France bans Office 365 and Google Workspace in schools
Country has concerns over competition and regulation
The French Ministry of National Education has urged educational institutions in the country to stop using free versions of Google Workspace and Microsoft Office 365 for schools and students.
The Ministry said such offers are not compatible with the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Schrems II judgment of the European Court of Justice, and the Dinum circular on the 'cloud at the centre'.
The Ministry issued the statement in response to a query from MP Philippe Latombe, who wanted to know whether Microsoft's free offer in schools amounted to unfair competition.
The Ministry agreed with Latombe's assertion and said it has directed schools to discontinue using Google Workspace and Microsoft Office 365.
It said that the Dinum (La direction interministérielle du numérique, the French ministry for digital transformation) circular makes it 'quite clear' that the use of Office 365 is not permitted in French administrative offices.
According to the 2021 circular government data should not be kept on Microsoft 365 cloud services, to safeguard it against a potential security breach or even abuse by US intelligence agencies.
Ministries may continue to use Microsoft software with appropriate applications (Word, Excel, etc.), but only as an on-premise version.
France has been focusing on cloud service security for a long time. The nation is attempting to defend itself against the US CLOUD Act of 2018, which mandates that businesses must reveal required data from their servers when ordered. The legislation applies both to US businesses and the clients they serve abroad.
The Ministry of National Education also referred to an earlier letter by the French data protection authority, CNIL (Commission Nationale de l'Informatique et des Libertes), which directed institutions in the country to ensure that their data is hosted on servers within the EU, rather than in the United States.
CNIL suggested using services offered by firms that are exclusively governed by European legislation and do not transfer customer data to countries outside the EU.
The Ministry of National Education also considered the Schrems II ruling from the EU Court of Justice, which declared the transatlantic framework for sending personal data from European users to the United States invalid.
Both Germany and France prohibit the use of free versions of Microsoft Office 365 in education.
Similar to France, Germany has concluded that the app gathers data from the user's machines and transfers it to American datacentres, in violation of the GDPR guidelines.