Where should your company store its data to be best protected? The legal differences between Switzerland, the USA and the European Union are considerable — and they have direct consequences on your compliance and security.
Three Jurisdiction Overview
| Criteria | Switzerland | European Union | United States |
|---|---|---|---|
| Main law | nLPD (2023) | GDPR (2018) | CLOUD Act (2018) |
| Protection level | Very high | High | Low (for foreigners) |
| Government data access | Very restricted | Variable by country | Very broad |
| Cross-border transfer | Heavily regulated | Regulated | Common and enforceable |
The US CLOUD Act and Your Data
The EU Data Centre Myth
Many businesses believe that using a Microsoft or Google data centre "in France" or "in Germany" protects them from the CLOUD Act. This is false. What matters is the company controlling the data, not the physical location of the servers.
The Swiss nLPD: World's Best Data Protection?
- Equivalent to GDPR for legal entities
- Banking secrecy – Very long tradition of data protection
- Political neutrality – No automatic alliance with the US
- No Swiss CLOUD Act – Swiss authorities cannot compel data handover to foreign governments
- Limited judicial cooperation with the United States
Protection Hierarchy Recommendation
| Level | Solution | Protection |
|---|---|---|
| Optimal | Self-hosted in Switzerland | Maximum |
| Excellent | Infomaniak (Switzerland) | Excellent |
| Good | OVH, Hetzner, Scaleway (EU) | Good |
| Risky | Microsoft/Google EU DC | Weak (CLOUD Act) |
| Avoid | AWS/Google/Azure US DC | Insufficient |
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