Cloud services and government digital sovereignty in Australia and beyond

Abstract

Abstract The Australian government has expressed concerns about various ‘data challenges’ confronting the public sector. Similar concerns are reverberating throughout the globe. Other governments continue to voice and act upon their own apprehensions about the threats posed to public and private society by attenuations to their nations’ ‘digital sovereignty’. This article critically examines the Australian government’s potential justifications, particularly under international trade law, for introducing digital sovereignty policies explicitly targeted at protecting government cyber systems and government data. We explore the risks and vulnerabilities of hosting government data offshore or with foreign cloud providers onshore. We find that Australia has sufficient latitude under its existing trade commitments, and within its current procurement framework, to introduce legitimate and proportionate digital sovereignty measures for the public sector.