That’s a great response. Thank you. I now worry that far too many people are lulled into a false sense of security because they run a VM on GCP based in Montreal.
Well, if it makes you feel better, a smaller business doing that is a big nothin-burger in some ways. I mean, our financial regulators have all of their data in US cloud service providers – the same regulators that demand industry submit copious amounts of private data to them for “risk management” reasons. Like in BC, if you have a mortgage with a credit union, that credit union submits your job title, employer, income, strata fees, address, loan amounts, etc etc in plain text to a Microsoft portal – so it’s all up for grabs by the USA, through the regulators that are claiming they ‘reduce’ risk.
So even if you have a bank/CU that’s largely sovereign in its own stack, they’ll STILL have exposure to this crap because our govt is so janked.
Going for sovereign-minded providers helps a bit, at least in terms of resiliency against US pressures, and for (HOPEFUL) future proofing once the govt gets its shit together.
Like I’m pissed off that BC is losing its last semi-sovereign open bond credit union. If you can find a financial institution that takes data sovereignty seriously, they’ll be in a ‘better’ position to protect your data if/when the govt shifts its policies, and they’ll be in a better position in general in terms of withstanding any US pressure on existing services (even if they wont be perfect). But you really gotta treat it as a “this is the best we can do, for now” type thing, and try to keep up the pressure to remove those ties.
I’d say the same goes for other industries as well, but I’d focus most on trying to get sovereign minded setups for any critical industry that you find yourself using regularly. I’d also try to make sure to explicitly add more sovereign-oriented news sources to feeds where possible – cbc, local news rags, etc. To effect change, for any coop/AGM type thing that you can attend/ask questions, prod about the data sovereignty issue. Like if Credit Union AGMs all had members asking these questions, regulators would take notice, and it’d get a LOT more traction.
For luxuries, I’d still personally try to avoid the USA – but luxuries are luxuries. Whatever makes you happy, gotta have some joy in this dumpster fire we’re all wading through.
That’s a great response. Thank you. I now worry that far too many people are lulled into a false sense of security because they run a VM on GCP based in Montreal.
Well, if it makes you feel better, a smaller business doing that is a big nothin-burger in some ways. I mean, our financial regulators have all of their data in US cloud service providers – the same regulators that demand industry submit copious amounts of private data to them for “risk management” reasons. Like in BC, if you have a mortgage with a credit union, that credit union submits your job title, employer, income, strata fees, address, loan amounts, etc etc in plain text to a Microsoft portal – so it’s all up for grabs by the USA, through the regulators that are claiming they ‘reduce’ risk.
So even if you have a bank/CU that’s largely sovereign in its own stack, they’ll STILL have exposure to this crap because our govt is so janked.
So basically we are all just fucked no matter what we do?
Going for sovereign-minded providers helps a bit, at least in terms of resiliency against US pressures, and for (HOPEFUL) future proofing once the govt gets its shit together.
Like I’m pissed off that BC is losing its last semi-sovereign open bond credit union. If you can find a financial institution that takes data sovereignty seriously, they’ll be in a ‘better’ position to protect your data if/when the govt shifts its policies, and they’ll be in a better position in general in terms of withstanding any US pressure on existing services (even if they wont be perfect). But you really gotta treat it as a “this is the best we can do, for now” type thing, and try to keep up the pressure to remove those ties.
I’d say the same goes for other industries as well, but I’d focus most on trying to get sovereign minded setups for any critical industry that you find yourself using regularly. I’d also try to make sure to explicitly add more sovereign-oriented news sources to feeds where possible – cbc, local news rags, etc. To effect change, for any coop/AGM type thing that you can attend/ask questions, prod about the data sovereignty issue. Like if Credit Union AGMs all had members asking these questions, regulators would take notice, and it’d get a LOT more traction.
For luxuries, I’d still personally try to avoid the USA – but luxuries are luxuries. Whatever makes you happy, gotta have some joy in this dumpster fire we’re all wading through.