GDPR | Sebastian Spicker

2026

1 article

28 Jan 2026 Your Encryption Keys Are in Virginia: On BitLocker, the FBI, and Why European Universities Need Sovereign Software Microsoft confirmed last week that it produced BitLocker recovery keys to the FBI after a valid legal order. On eligible devices, Windows can back a recovery key up to a Microsoft account during setup. For European universities that handle research data, student records, and HR information under GDPR, this is not an abstract concern. It is a structural problem. The answer is not a technical workaround. It is sovereign, publicly funded, openly licensed software — and a principle that the EU has articulated but not consistently practised: public money, public code. open-sourcesovereigntyuniversities

2022

1 article

5 Jul 2022 Why Universities Need Their Own YouTube In June 2022 I presented on educast.nrw at the Tag der Lehre at HfMT Köln. This is the longer argument behind that talk: why universities should not outsource their video infrastructure to commercial platforms, and what a better alternative looks like in practice. educationvideoopen-source