Microsoft Office 365 and Google Workspace are no longer welcome in French schools

With Office 365 Education and Workspace Education, Microsoft and Google offer free options for Office software packages for educational institutions and students. However, the French Ministry of Education banned the use of these free offers in schools.

It appears that the ministry is mainly concerned with these free offerings rather than the paid versions of the software. Free offers are not rated by SecNumCloudverification by the French National Cyber ​​Security Agency (ANSSI) for commercial cloud products.

This is now over, but the issue of security is a thing of the past, as in August Philippe Latombe, a member of the French National Assembly, warned Papa Ndiaye, the Minister of National Education, that the free version Microsoft Office 365although attractive, is equivalent kind of illegal dumping.

This term refers to the sale of a product at prices below cost in order to eliminate competition and capture the entire market.

France is getting serious and is phasing out free versions of Office 365 and Workspace in their schools

“Microsoft Office 365 may seem attractive at first glance, but the free offering of this service is extreme and deserves unfair competition. This raises a serious question about sovereignty, because it is higher. Please tell us what you think about this.” Latombe explained.

Instead, writes Ndiaye, educational institutions should use collaboration kits from Europe “who host data in the European Union and do not transfer it to the United States.”

Note that in the EU, not only France, but also Germany prohibit the use of Microsoft Office 365 in schools. Germany determined thatMicrosoft Office 365 communicates with data centers in the US.” violates the GDPR and was banned in 2019 in terms of protecting confidential information.

And it is that they believe that Microsoft and Google are not complying with European data regulations, as well as the 2020 European Court of Justice ruling that governs data sharing across borders.

However, despite this, it appears that both companies are vying to win European government contracts in the cloud. On behalf of Microsoft, Microsoft announced the Microsoft Cloud for Sovereignty, a service that will enable public sector customers to use services in cloud companies in accordance with the policy.

You also want to unfold like GoogleEU policy on user data, which can be processed under data processing rules by the end of 2022 and can also be used in schools.