OpenClaw and GDPR

Europe has a new tech-celebrity. When Austrian developer Peter Steinberger published OpenClaw at the end of November 2025, neither he nor the tech world could have predicted the fallout. Both he and his software became enormously popular, breaking records across the open-source community.

As the charts show, OpenClaw slashed n8n's momentum within just a few weeks of its release. The core idea is as simple as it is brilliant: give a LLMs actual access to your PC, turning it from an isolated chatbot into an autonomous agent that can execute shell commands, read files, and handle complex real-world workflows. However, giving an LLM that much control comes with severe security risks and a massive compliance headache.

What about GDPR

Each European developer is, to some extent, already familiar with our strict data privacy protection laws. Therefore, devs are naturally wondering whether they are even allowed to use OpenClaw in a professional environment. If you use it for business purposes and not just as a toy project, there is a high likelihood that you are the data controller, which comes with great legal responsibility.

Fortunately, OpenClaw is open-source software, giving you the flexibility to run and configure it entirely on your own terms.

Deployment is just one piece of that puzzle, but it is the critical foundation. This article focuses strictly on that foundational step. Let's concentrate on how to build your infrastructure using the European Stack: which LLMs, servers, and messengers will give you the best baseline?

Virtual private servers

Because OpenClaw requires a persistent environment to act as your agent's gateway, you'll need a reliable host. You can use any provider with enough RAM, but to keep your data safely within the EU, consider these major European hosts:

• Hetzner
• Hostinger
• netcup
• UpCloud
• OVHcloud
• IONOS

LLMs

Running LLMs on a dedicated machine is, security-wise, a fantastic option. However, it drastically impairs the agent's capabilities because your local models are generally not top-notch. It's incredibly hard to run a massive model like Kimi 2.5 (with its 1000B parameters) locally without enterprise-grade hardware.

Because of this limitation, most people actually choose LLM cloud endpoints to power OpenClaw's "brain."

Why ZDR is not enough

There are some endpoints providing ZDR (Zero Data Retention). While this is a great feature from a security standpoint, you still need to have a Data Processing Agreement (DPA) in place if you process personal data.

A good compromise is to use GDPR-compliant LLM cloud endpoints hosted by European companies. Based on the European Stack, your best options are:

• Mistral AI
• cortecs
• OVHcloud
• IONOS

Messenger

OpenClaw's primary user interface is the messaging app you already use. While many users default to Discord, WhatsApp, or Slack, these are not ideal for strict GDPR compliance. To keep your communication layer secure and European-based, you should look at decentralized or self-hosted platforms:

• Matrix
• Nextcloud

Next steps

Now, even if your deployment is done perfectly right, it really gets tricky. Setting up a European-hosted infrastructure is just the foundation; operating an autonomous agent introduces severe, structural security risks that you must actively manage. The AI agent landscape is currently a security minefield. Some of the major known vulnerabilities include:

Prompt Injections: Because OpenClaw reads untrusted content (like incoming emails or webpages) while having system-level privileges and external communication abilities, an attacker can embed hidden instructions in a document. If the agent reads it, it can be hijacked and silently exfiltrate your data or execute malicious commands without your knowledge.

Key Leaks and Exposed Interfaces: Misconfigurations are rampant. Early on, tens of thousands of OpenClaw instances were left wide open on the internet due to improper port bindings or reverse proxy setups. Attackers can bypass authentication entirely to steal API keys, gateway tokens and your plaintext credentials.

Malicious Skills: The ClawHub marketplace has been heavily targeted by threat actors. They upload scripts disguised as legitimate tools that actually operate as info-stealers, silently grabbing your passwords, browser data, and session tokens.

Securing this setup requires strict network isolation (such as running it strictly over a VPN like Tailscale rather than exposing it to the public internet) and rigorous, manual auditing of any skills you install.

Summary

Autonomous agents like OpenClaw offer immense potential to revolutionize workflows, but they carry significant and well-documented security risks. Achieving a safe and GDPR-compliant setup is a complex puzzle. While selecting a solid European Stack provides the necessary data-privacy foundation, the real challenge lies in mitigating the ongoing operational threats like prompt injections and malicious plugins.