What is sovereign video conferencing?
Sovereign video conferencing means your video calls stay under European law and control. In practice you check four things: where the company is based, where calls are hosted, who owns the servers, and where recordings are kept. The more of these that are in the EU, the more sovereign your calls are.
Why people are asking about it
Most popular video tools are made by US companies. Under the US CLOUD Act, US authorities can ask a US company for data it controls, even if the data sits in Europe. For many EU businesses, banks and public bodies, that is a risk they want to avoid. Read more in our guide to the CLOUD Act and video calls.
The four levels of sovereignty
| Level | Question to ask | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Company | Is the vendor an EU company with no US parent? | Decides which laws can force it to hand over data. |
| 2. Hosting | Do calls run on servers in the EU? | Keeps live audio and video inside the EU. |
| 3. Infrastructure | Who owns the data centre and cloud? | Some “EU” services run on US-owned clouds. |
| 4. Recordings | Where are recordings stored, and who holds the keys? | Recordings are the data that lasts longest. |
How FaceWithMe scores
- Company: AUVIOUS LTD, based in Cyprus, EU.
- Hosting: calls run on servers in Brussels, Belgium.
- Recordings: if you turn recording on, it goes to your own storage (Amazon S3, Azure, Google Cloud Storage or your own SFTP server). Our temporary copy is deleted after the transfer.
- Infrastructure: if you need EU-owned infrastructure as well, ask us about your case.
Do you need full sovereignty?
Not everyone does. A small shop may be fine with an EU-hosted tool. A bank, a hospital or a government body may need all four levels, written into the contract. Start with the data in your calls: the more sensitive it is, the more levels you need.