qwant.com... isn't the .com TLD managed by Verisign (formerly by US DoD), so they have total control over the domain registration including judicial norms? I would at least have expected qwant.fr.
Yes, but they are using qwant.com as their canonical domain, with the other TLDs being redirects. As such, the site appears to be under US jurisdiction. So what will they do if Imperial Stormtroopers come knocking at their door? Also the US root server that translates the domain name into an IP address is as well under US jurisdiction. It could be redirected to a server in Disneylanf so every request may be Mickeymoused by them. Or am I being a tad too paranoid there? I mean, as long as Ursula von der Leyen is Viceemperor for Europe, it is all moot.
I'd have to ask them but my guess is that they decided '.com' would be the most discoverable domain for an international audience and also hopefully soak up a few accidental users in the US. Bonkers though the current administration is over there, the core domain could be switched and DNSes duly replicated within hours if necessary. Inconvenient but hardly critical: it's only a search engine. I take your point, though: it smacks of "Do as we say; not as our preferred suppliers do." Joined-up thinking remains a long way off in EU digital sovereignty. But they'll learn.
I hope they also managed to replace US made switches, CPUs mainboards and other hardware in their data centres with audited EU-designed and made products where only our own secret police can spy on everybodies communications ;-)
Quite so. My mighty ex-colleague Rupert Goodwins pointed this out in a piece on The Register. It's a topic I'm trying to tackle, along with that of popular resistance to the building of data centers, in a follow-up article in next month's Reporting from Paris. There's only so much I can cover in 1,000 words at a time! But I note that Huawei has already found ways to emulate American chippy stuff despite its ban.
You clld collect comments frock this conversation and post them I Reportingfromparis as a follow-up article. Global data control by a rogue state is a global danger disguised as convenience.
So here is the thing. Weaning technically unsavvy managers off what they already have, even if the new thing is demonstrably better, is incredibly difficult. If the new thing is an in-house development, that’s even more difficult, because nobody wants to maintain it. Hats off to the Gendarmes for going Linux and making it stick though.
If I might remind readers that I will be adding updates on this topic in Reporting from Paris's Chat room. And to add that the UK government is turning towards tech sovereignty much as Europe is - but obviously taking pains not to use the 'E' word. The UK's minister for AI and online safety, Kanishka Narayan, posted on X to say: "We treat every other threat to our sovereignty with deadly seriousness, but we haven't learned to treat this one in the same way." https://x.com/KanishkaNarayan/status/2066157359638962632?s=20
No sooner does this article go out than I hear the government-preferred messaging app Tchap got broken into via a hijacked user account. I will move discussion about this into our Chat because I think the clean-up will be revealing for the future of digital sovereignty.
qwant.com... isn't the .com TLD managed by Verisign (formerly by US DoD), so they have total control over the domain registration including judicial norms? I would at least have expected qwant.fr.
Internet protocols remain international. I see that the qwant.eu domain is available...
Yes, but they are using qwant.com as their canonical domain, with the other TLDs being redirects. As such, the site appears to be under US jurisdiction. So what will they do if Imperial Stormtroopers come knocking at their door? Also the US root server that translates the domain name into an IP address is as well under US jurisdiction. It could be redirected to a server in Disneylanf so every request may be Mickeymoused by them. Or am I being a tad too paranoid there? I mean, as long as Ursula von der Leyen is Viceemperor for Europe, it is all moot.
I'd have to ask them but my guess is that they decided '.com' would be the most discoverable domain for an international audience and also hopefully soak up a few accidental users in the US. Bonkers though the current administration is over there, the core domain could be switched and DNSes duly replicated within hours if necessary. Inconvenient but hardly critical: it's only a search engine. I take your point, though: it smacks of "Do as we say; not as our preferred suppliers do." Joined-up thinking remains a long way off in EU digital sovereignty. But they'll learn.
I hope they also managed to replace US made switches, CPUs mainboards and other hardware in their data centres with audited EU-designed and made products where only our own secret police can spy on everybodies communications ;-)
Quite so. My mighty ex-colleague Rupert Goodwins pointed this out in a piece on The Register. It's a topic I'm trying to tackle, along with that of popular resistance to the building of data centers, in a follow-up article in next month's Reporting from Paris. There's only so much I can cover in 1,000 words at a time! But I note that Huawei has already found ways to emulate American chippy stuff despite its ban.
You clld collect comments frock this conversation and post them I Reportingfromparis as a follow-up article. Global data control by a rogue state is a global danger disguised as convenience.
Assembled in the US maybe. The chips and components inside are another matter as is the software.
Honestly not sure how to un-ring all the bells here. Kurt Gödel and Alan Turing ultimately appear to be having the last laughs.
So here is the thing. Weaning technically unsavvy managers off what they already have, even if the new thing is demonstrably better, is incredibly difficult. If the new thing is an in-house development, that’s even more difficult, because nobody wants to maintain it. Hats off to the Gendarmes for going Linux and making it stick though.
If I might remind readers that I will be adding updates on this topic in Reporting from Paris's Chat room. And to add that the UK government is turning towards tech sovereignty much as Europe is - but obviously taking pains not to use the 'E' word. The UK's minister for AI and online safety, Kanishka Narayan, posted on X to say: "We treat every other threat to our sovereignty with deadly seriousness, but we haven't learned to treat this one in the same way." https://x.com/KanishkaNarayan/status/2066157359638962632?s=20
No sooner does this article go out than I hear the government-preferred messaging app Tchap got broken into via a hijacked user account. I will move discussion about this into our Chat because I think the clean-up will be revealing for the future of digital sovereignty.
Is it better to have your in-house communication system attacked by a mercenary than a 'friendly' government?
Honest governments have no good reason to eavesdrop on their friends.