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Data Sovereignty and AI: The Complete Guide for European Businesses

GDPR, European hosting, audit trail: how to ensure data sovereignty when using AI in business. Practical 2026 guide.

Published on February 7, 2026·by Équipe Spoton·2 min read
Protection des données et souveraineté numérique en Europe

Mass AI adoption in business raises a fundamental question: where does your data go? When an employee pastes a confidential document into ChatGPT, who has access? Where is it stored? Is it used to train the model? In Europe, GDPR imposes strict rules, but most consumer AI tools don't natively comply.

The Problem: Your Confidential Data in the American Cloud

Most popular AI tools are hosted in the United States, meaning:

  • The CLOUD Act applies: US authorities can request access to your data without your consent
  • Data transfers outside the EU are subject to strict GDPR requirements (Schrems II)
  • Terms of service of most tools allow using your data for model training

The 4 Pillars of AI Sovereignty

1. Certified European Hosting

Spoton uses Google Cloud Europe (europe-west1, Belgium), ensuring all data stays within the EU. Requests to AI models are proxied — your data is never sent directly to American providers.

2. End-to-End Encryption

TLS 1.3 for all communications, AES-256 for storage. Encryption keys managed by the client or via a European KMS.

3. Granular Access Control

Administrators define which models are accessible, what data types can be sent, retention policies, and role-based permissions.

4. Complete Audit Trail

Every AI interaction is logged and timestamped: who sent what, to which model, when, from which device.

How Spoton Ensures Sovereignty

Designed in Strasbourg, European capital and seat of the European Parliament, Spoton was architected from day one for data sovereignty: 100% European infrastructure, proxy architecture, AES-256 encryption, complete audit trail, and GDPR/AI Act compliance verified by an external DPO.

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