"US Takeover"
Netherlands blocks US takeover of vital digital supplier
21–30 of 246 posts
Re: Netherlands blocks US takeover of vital digital supplier
#22Solvinity is a pretty terrible company name.
> Solvinity is a pretty terrible company name. I find it okay'ish. At least it's unique. Say, as much as I like Mario Zechner (who doesn't like HNers anymore for whatever reason), naming your product "Pi" is just terribly bad. Facebook was a good name (hate the company but the name was good). But "Meta" is just dumbfucktarded. Wait... I've got an idea: I'm going to make a product and name it "Alt". Or "Control". Real…
I've always found Whatsapp a terrible name, but its so established now that 'apping' is understood. If you're big enough it seems that a bad name hardly hold you back.
Re: Netherlands blocks US takeover of vital digital supplier
#23Solvinity is a pretty terrible company name.
We're terrible at company and brand naming here in Europe. Just look at the "Wero" payment solution (formerly/currently iDeal). Like, who the hell came up with that stupid name?
The list of stupid European company names and product names are endless.
Re: Netherlands blocks US takeover of vital digital supplier
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
> A couple of weeks ago, the entire parliament (with only a single party dissenting) voted for a motion to end the contract with Solvinity, but the government extended it anyway, leaving blocking the takeover as the only option, Given what we know now, this seems perfectly logical. It's just that we don't know what else is going on behind the scenes. I'm sure there was some negotiations on how to keep the data separa…
> I'm sure there was some negotiations which i'm sure the current administration would honour There should be grave consequences alone for the fact that the goverment acted against the parliament
> which i'm sure the current administration would honour
It would've been the same administration as the one doing the negotiations, so I would assume yes.
> There should be grave consequences alone for the fact that the goverment acted against the parliament
In general I think there's a pretty good understanding between the legislative branch and the executive branch. The Netherlands has always had coalitions. Also, every single government will talk to the other parties.
I'm not sure what country you're referring to but the Netherlands has a properly functioning democracy. The only problem it has is splintering into too many small factions making coalitions super hard
Re: Netherlands blocks US takeover of vital digital supplier
#25Good on the Dutch government for actually doing something.
All governments are "doing something". It just isn't at all effective and mostly because they're unwilling to invest even marginal amounts. Like in this case. The technology here utterly depends on Google Play Services on Android or App Attest on Apple (or "secure enclave"), and that is in fact essentially the only functionality. This could have been solved instead switching to a standard (switching to OATH, RFC 4226…
I'm not talking about some abstract sense of "did the government do anything at all today", I am saying "good on the government for doing something in this specific case instead of doing nothing and letting it be sold", which was a possible outcome, and in fact the default outcome of the vast, vast majority of acquisitions is that the government does nothing to intervene.
Could they do something better, sure. I am still glad to see they did something at all.
Re: Netherlands blocks US takeover of vital digital supplier
#26Finally! The entire country has been clamouring for this for weeks, and the government has been completely silent about it. A couple of weeks ago, the entire parliament (with only a single party dissenting) voted for a motion to end the contract with Solvinity, but the government extended it anyway, leaving blocking the takeover as the only option, and there wasn't a lot of confidence that the government would do tha…
It is a bit more complex tham that.
Logius is the company that actually owns and manages the DigiD stack, it's just that they hired Solvinity for their expertise. AFAIK Solvinity can't access the data.
I can't find it right now, but on Tweakers there was a long comment by someone on the inside that explained Logius basically had almost no know-how of how the current stack works, and there's lots of bespoke stuff. Basically classic vendor lock-in. The government (rather, Logius) now really wants to transition away from Solvinity, but that will likely be a 5+ year process.
I also feel like this is another thing that the "fast ring" of the EU should do together. Take Estonia's stack as a base, and then countries like Sweden, Denmark, Finland, The Netherlands adopt it and co- develop it. Make it extensible for the bespoke things the countries need, and every few years check which bespoke extensions can actually be generalized and modularized. Would lead to a much better product. A man can dream :)
Re: Netherlands blocks US takeover of vital digital supplier
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Solvinity is a pretty terrible company name. I find it okay'ish. At least it's unique. Say, as much as I like Mario Zechner (who doesn't like HNers anymore for whatever reason), naming your product "Pi" is just terribly bad. Facebook was a good name (hate the company but the name was good). But "Meta" is just dumbfucktarded. Wait... I've got an idea: I'm going to make a product and name it "Alt". Or "Control". Real…
I've always found Whatsapp a terrible name, but its so established now that 'apping' is understood. If you're big enough it seems that a bad name hardly hold you back.
Reminds me of the old joke:
After Bill and Melinda Gates have their honeymoon, Melinda says, "Now I know why you call it Microsoft."
Re: Netherlands blocks US takeover of vital digital supplier
#28The Dutch should be aware that if Netherland has some information-sharing agreements with Five Eyes or Fourteen Eyes, all this data will still be available to the US (and other allies) (hopefully, presumably, with your government acting as the gatekeeper).
Re: Netherlands blocks US takeover of vital digital supplier
#29Finally! The entire country has been clamouring for this for weeks, and the government has been completely silent about it. A couple of weeks ago, the entire parliament (with only a single party dissenting) voted for a motion to end the contract with Solvinity, but the government extended it anyway, leaving blocking the takeover as the only option, and there wasn't a lot of confidence that the government would do tha…
>> Finally!
You are behind the curve. You read here first. Lets revisit this comment in 2 years...
This will be overturned by both Dutch and European courts after the company appeals, and specially after Mark Rutte Daddy calls. The only purpose of this action is for the Dutch government to save face, and its for internal consumption. They already have the internal legal advice stating this, hidden away in some closet. But then they will say: You see, we wanted to do it but a court blocked us.
>>Of course there's still plenty of sensitive data in the hands of Microsoft, Amazon and other US companies.
The WHOLE Dutch diplomatic and broader civil service, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, runs extensively on Microsoft infrastructure for its daily operations, cloud services, and email. And they leak....
"Microsoft Accused Of Sharing Dutch Officials’ Data with U.S. Government" - https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/microsoft-accus...
This will also be the core legal argument by the appealing company. They will argue that the decision was politicized, insufficiently reasoned, or disproportionate because binding technical/legal safeguards would have solved the risks... And they will use as example, the diplomatic service extensive use of Microsoft :-)
So is nothing more than another Polder hypocritical take, by the Dutch government.
Re: Netherlands blocks US takeover of vital digital supplier
#30[flagged]