‘Over-reliance on foreign tech companies is now an urgent national security issue’ says ORG
Digital rights campaigners and MPs have warned that the UK’s heavy reliance on a small group of mainly US technology companies represents an economic, security and geopolitical risk.
In a new report, the Open Rights Group (ORG) takes aim at “the dominance of a few tech giants” across UK government and business, which it says has led to vendor lock-in, inflated costs and “the extraction of value from the UK economy through tax avoidance and profit repatriation”.
ORG highlights risks to national security from surveillance, espionage and cyberattacks arising from this concentration of power, with the UK exposed to extra-territorial legislation such as the US Cloud Act and China’s National Intelligence Law, which can compel tech companies to hand over data.
It also criticises Big Tech lobbying, which it claims, “distorts policy-making, leading to weaker regulation, anti-competitive practices, and a centralised, abusive and anti-democratic digital information environment,” and bemoans the fact that digital sovereignty is “noticeably absent from public UK policy documents”.
ORG recommends that, rather than defaulting to Big Tech, the UK should adopt a strategy of procuring locally developed open source solutions, which it argues would have a knock-on effect in supporting domestic technical capacity. It also recommends creating new institutions within government to help shape global rules, and that the UK should prioritise open standards and interoperability.
It notes that European countries including Germany, France, the Netherlands and Denmark are actively pursuing digital sovereignty through investments in open technology and international collaboration, while the UK is increasing its spending on US hyperscalers even as it claims to support British AI and software industries.
ORG CEO Jim Killock commented: “This over-reliance on foreign tech companies is now an urgent national security issue as well as an economic threat. The UK needs to follow the EU’s lead and develop a digital sovereignty strategy that builds and deploys Open Source software and promotes international collaboration.”
For the Greens, Siân Berry MP said: “Striving for digital sovereignty … should be a top government objective, and is a massive chance to grow the UK’s homegrown technology sector.”
Labour MP Clive Lewis pointed to the growing adoption of Palantir, which he said, “should have no place in delivering UK public services.”
Liberal Democrat peer Lord Clement-Jones said: “The question now is whether we have the political courage to act. Every procurement decision that embeds foreign dependency, every compromise of sovereignty in the name of convenience, accumulates into strategic vulnerability.”