The UK’s longstanding reliance on US big tech is putting it at risk, a new report warns.

The Open Rights Group warns that the UK is inviting major security risks to its critical national infrastructure by putting its data and software systems in the hands of a few mighty American tech giants.

This is putting more than just cyber at risk, but is locking the UK into deals and partnerships without room for vital flexibility and independence when it comes to issues like data protection and economic turbulence, the Open Rights Group found.

“For years, a handful of Big Tech companies have used their power to gain control of the UK’s digital infrastructure, locking the government into wasteful contracts and shaping tech policy in their favour,” said Jim Killock, the group’s executive director. “This overreliance on foreign tech companies is now an urgent national security issue as well as an economic threat.”

It alleges that if US and UK relations were to worsen or dissolve, the UK’s tech infrastructure could suffer sanctions and even crumble due to its reliance on US corporations.

This risk was exemplified in Microsoft’s shutdown of email facilities to International Criminal Court when it issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, earning it retalitory sanctions from the US.

“If the UK’s relationship with the US were to deteriorate, for example over Greenland or Iran, the US could leverage power through its corporate dominance of the UK’s critical infrastructure,” the report says.

The economic fallout of this US reliance has already been detailed in reports from the Competition and Markets Authority, which found that the UK is being overcharged by £500m a year in the cloud market.

The Social Market Foundation also estimates that the UK government will be overcharged by at least £300M via software license conditions.

US tech giants leverage their dominance to create vendor-lock in and unfair market conditions, the report alleges. The Open Rights Group says that around eight major IT providers and consultancies that are listed as strategic suppliers to the UK are over charging for their services, while other projects run over budgets.

Further, reliance on foreign companies puts data at risk of foreign governance and interference.

The US Cloud Act and China’s National Intelligence Laws can force tech companies to grant access to UK data and systems, putting UK private data at risk.

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Beyond this, the sheer economic willpower of gargantuan tech companies can lobby governments against their own best interests, and can lead to a lack of anti-trust laws, and “a centralised, abusive, and anti-democratic digital information environment,” the Open Rights Group argues.

The report urges the UK government to make a concerted effort to strengthen its own digital economy by pursuing digital sovereignty through internal investments as well as collaborations in tech infrastructure, following the suit of other European nations.

It specifically calls for more investment in Open Source, as well as modernising critical government systems to improve security.

The report comes as MPs and the public are pressuring the UK government to reconsider its many contracts with Palantir, a controversial US-based tech giant that is expanding its footprint in some of the UK’s critical industries.

The firm has signed contracts to update the federated data platform of the NHS, and has deals with the Ministry of Defence. The deals have faced decries and debate from all angles with MPs questioning why a UK company was not chosen over a foreign one to handle such sensitive data, to the firm’s work with the US on its Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) missions, to its collaborations with the state of Israel.