EU Data Sovereignty and Why It Matters

The location of your data matters legally, not just geographically.

The CLOUD Act problem

The United States CLOUD Act (2018) requires US-based companies to produce data stored anywhere in the world when served with a US government order, regardless of where the data physically sits. A US company operating EU data centres must still comply if ordered.

This means that storing your data with a US cloud provider, even in an EU region, does not guarantee the same protections as storing it with a company headquartered in the EU under EU law.

What GDPR actually requires

The General Data Protection Regulation sets rules about how personal data is processed. For transfers outside the EU, there are strict requirements. But GDPR compliance and immunity from foreign government access are two different things.

PrivoHub is operated from within the EU. We are not subject to the CLOUD Act. We cannot be compelled by a US court order to hand over your data.

Practical implications

For most users, government access is not the primary concern. The more everyday risks are:

• Advertising profiling: your photos and documents used to train ad-targeting models
• Data breaches: large platforms are high-value targets
• Service termination: platforms shut down or change terms unilaterally

EU data sovereignty, combined with open-source software and no-advertising business model, addresses all three.

Our commitment

We store all data in data centres within the EU. We have no US parent company. We have no advertising business. Our revenue comes exclusively from subscription fees, which means our interests are aligned with yours.