Given the ongoing #coup in the #UnitedStates and the ensuing increased security and privacy issues, I am refusing to actively contribute to the usage of the #Microsoft #email service of the #UniversityOfAmsterdam (18 Feb 2025: see update below).

I am archiving my incoming email to my own server, which is based in the #Netherlands and I only respond from my own email address (like this link).

Yes, it’s largely symbolic, but at this point, when it comes to forms of resistance, we can’t be picky.

In short:

  1. No amount of guarantees from Microsoft that our data remains in the EU can prevent US authorities from accessing our data on its servers.
  2. The United States is being taken over by fascist criminals.

Update Tue 18 Feb 2025

Ironically, the Microsoft server of the University of Amsterdam has been flagging the email I send from my transip server as spam. While recognizing the challenges of spam prevention, I feel this only shows how problematic it is that we all depend on the decisions made by people who have an incentive to push people away from the smaller servers.

For now, to be able to do my job, I am going back to sending email from the Microsoft server, but I will continue to try hard to get rid of this digital dependence that our managers have allowed to materialize.

Readings to support point 1#

  • “Servers in de EU, eigen (dubbele) sleutels: helpt het?” (Dec 11 2024 link).

Naar aanleiding van veel misverstanden hier een kort stukje over:

  • Helpt het als Microsoft/Google/Amazon beloven dat mijn gegevens op servers in de EU worden opgeslagen?
  • Kan ik met “eigen sleutels” / bring your own key / double key encryption / aparte opslag, mijn data in praktische zin beschermen tegen Amerikaanse spionage?
  • Kan ik me zo beschermen tegen Amerikaanse sancties / dreigementen / Trumpiaanse woedeuitbarstingen?

Het antwoord op alledrie de vragen is helaas “nee”.

Readings to support point 2#

  • “The biggest breach of US government data is under way” (Feb 5 2025 link

“Whether a feat or a coup (which depends entirely on your point of view), a small group of mostly young, private-sector employees from Musk’s businesses and associates — many with no prior government experience — can now view and, in some cases, control the federal government’s most sensitive data held on millions of Americans and the nation’s closest allies.”

  • “Of course it’s a coup” (Feb 5 2025 link)

https://snyder.substack.com/p/of-course-its-a-coup?publication_id=310897&r=diqr

“The ongoing actions by Musk and his followers are a coup because the individuals seizing power have no right to it. Elon Musk was elected to no office and there is no office that would give him the authority to do what he is doing. It is all illegal. It is also a coup in its intended effects: to undo democratic practice and violate human rights.”

In gaining data about us all, Musk has trampled on any notion of privacy and dignity, as well as on the explicit and implicit agreements made with our government when we pay our taxes or our student loans. And the possession of that data enables blackmail and further crimes.