Qwant
© Wired
France has declared war on Google to avoid becoming a "digital colony" of the US, according to reports. The French Army ministry and parliament are switching computers and handheld gadgets to use the rival Qwant search engine which they claim is more secure.

Qwant, a French and German owned web service, promises not to track its users like Google and others.

MP Florian Bachelier said: "We have to set the example. Security and digital sovereignty are at stake here, which is anything but an issue only for geeks." He chairs the National Assembly's cybersecurity and digital sovereignty task force, which was set up in April to protect firms from hackers and end France's reliance on foreign tech giants.

Officials and politicians are said to be very concerned with the dominance of US and Chinese firms and the concept of "digital sovereignty", including a country's control over its citizens data, reports Wired.

A 2013 report warned France and the EU risked becoming "digital colonies" in the wake of the Snowden revelations on NSA spying.

This year leaders were horrified at the Cambridge Analytica scandal when it was revealed researchers harvested the personal data of 87 million Facebook users.

President Emmanuel Macron has promised laws to crack down on Silicon Valley giants and how they share personal information. He said at a conference last week: "If we don't regulate the internet, the risk is to upset the fundamentals of democracy."

Last month France's secretary of state for digital affairs, Mounir Mahjoubi, railed against new US data laws and warned France and other European nations were preparing a response.

The controversial Cloud Act would allow the US to access all data stored on American companies' servers wherever they are located in the world.

In July the European Commission fined Google £3.8 billion for market abuse relating to Android software on smartphones. Donald Trump - who has called the EU a "foe" and threatened a trade war - said of the penalty: "I told you so!"

Here's our guide to dodging Google's snooping tactics online.