EU Sovereignty Score
Self-hosted / open sourceCybersecurityHeadquarters: US

McAfee: sovereignty score and 8 European alternatives

McAfee develops consumer security software for Windows, Mac and mobile devices, including antivirus and online protection, identity theft protection and privacy services sold under plans such as McAfee+ and Total Protection. The software is installed on users' own devices. The range also includes a family safety product, and in February 2024 the company expanded its identity theft protection services.

McAfee is headquartered in San Jose, California. Since March 2022 it has been privately owned by an investor group led by Advent International Corporation, with co-investors that include Permira, Crosspoint Capital Partners, CPP Investments, GIC and a subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority. Because the company itself is US-headquartered, it is subject to US legal process. European customers should check the storage locations of the specific product they use.

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Sovereignty score
55 / 1000 = high exposure
100 = sovereign
  • Jurisdiction SOV-210
    Headquartered in the US: CLOUD Act and FISA 702
  • Data residency SOV-3100
    No hosting in Europe (US)
  • Cryptographic key sovereignty SOV-380
    Closed source, but self-hostable: encryption keys and runtime under your own control
  • Freedom from lock-in SOV-640
    Closed source: switching requires data migration
  • Source & runtime sovereignty SOV-4 · SOV-645
    Closed source, but self-hostable on your own infrastructure

SOV codes: the matching objective in the European Commission's Cloud Sovereignty Framework. Official source

How the score is calculated

Facts and evidence

Last checked October 11, 2026
HeadquartersUS (US)Verified by hand
EU adequacy decisionOnly for companies individually certified under the EU-US Data Privacy FrameworkVerified by hand
Data hostingSelf-hosted, e.g. in US (your choice)Verified by hand
Open-sourceNoVerified by hand
GDPR-compliantNoVendor-stated
CategoryCybersecurity
TypeProduct
Websitemcafee.com ↗

How we verify · Something wrong? Suggest a correction

Top EU-based & GDPR-compliant alternatives to McAfee

The European alternatives to McAfee come from our knowledge base of over 6,200 vendors. We only list vendors headquartered in the EU or the EEA; fully European-owned vendors rank before vendors with a foreign owner. For each alternative you see the country, the open-source status and a short description.

Score per alternative: 0 = high exposure, 100 = sovereign

93 European Cybersecurity vendors are in the catalogue. View the whole category · Submit an alternative · View category on the map

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Why digital sovereignty matters with McAfee

McAfee is headquartered in the United States. US vendors fall under the CLOUD Act and FISA 702: US authorities can compel access to data, even when that data sits in a European data centre. That is the core of the jurisdictional exposure in our model.

McAfee runs on infrastructure you choose and control yourself. You decide where the data lives, including fully within the EU if you want — this is not a fixed hosting choice made by the vendor.

McAfee is closed source, but you run the software yourself on your own infrastructure. The encryption keys and the runtime therefore stay under your own control, though you cannot audit or modify the source code. Ask about export options and open standards to limit software-level lock-in.

What this means for your organisation depends on your whole stack and context. The free assessment weighs McAfee together with your other vendors and gives a total score, a heatmap and the main risk drivers.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best European alternative to McAfee?

It depends on your use case. Strong EU alternatives to McAfee include Actalis, Advenica and Avira. On this page you can compare 8 EU alternatives by jurisdiction, data residency and open-source status.

Are there open-source alternatives to McAfee?

Yes. Open-source EU alternatives to McAfee include CrowdSec. These keep your data fully under your own control and let you self-host if you want to.

Is McAfee GDPR-compliant and where is the data hosted?

McAfee is headquartered in US and hosts data in US. Its GDPR compliance is limited or unclear. For full EU data residency the EU alternatives on this page usually offer more certainty.

Details and sources

Verified by handHeadquarters, owner, hosting locations and licence have been checked by us against public sources. Free of charge and for every vendor, not a paid label. Nothing in this knowledge base is taken over automatically. Last checked on October 11, 2026.

Sources

Public sources used in the latest check of this record.

Compliance evidence

The links below point to the vendor's own public documents. We only record what we found: a missing link means "not found publicly", not "not compliant".

No public compliance evidence has been recorded for this vendor yet. Do you know its DPA or subprocessor list? Something wrong? Suggest a correction

Cyber Resilience Act

Public signals that relate to the EU Cyber Resilience Act. They do not count towards the score. A missing line means "not found publicly".

We found none of these signals on the vendor's own site when we checked.

For products in scope of the CRA, CE marking is required from 11 December 2027; this cannot be checked yet.

Checked on October 11, 2026. What is the Cyber Resilience Act?

Digital sovereignty in Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity: Threat detection, endpoint protection, SIEM, vulnerability management. In this category the choice of vendor determines who has legal access to your data, where that data lives and how easily you can switch later.

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8 European alternatives to McAfee — GDPR-compliant & EU-hosted · EU Sovereignty Score