171–180 of 246 posts
Finally! 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…
> With the US law that the US government should be able to get access to any data held by a US company Er, what law is this, exactly?
The concerning thing for the EU should be that this valuable firm had no European capital trying to buy it. The Dutch have protected their sovereignty today while decreasing the incentive for the next entrepreneur to make something on European shores. Probably the best choice but doesn't change the structural problem.
Concerning for you, perhaps. I take the opposite lesson: this incentivizes and invites the exact kind of entrepreneurs you want to have in a country. You profit-driven Americans assume that all entrepreneurs build things to maximize profit at the expense of everything else. No, not everyone is driven by that, and many of the best company builders were not primarily profit driven (e.g. Steve Jobs believed in beauty an…
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We're just establishing that what one can pay is in fact not the only measure, disproving your universal assertion by counterexample. Regarding the specific case, they probably have the money. But they don't need it. Such is the beauty of regulatory power, vested in a democracy.
The common expression goes: "Put your money where your mouth is" I want to see if the Dutch will do that or not. To see the full beauty of regulatory power, you also have to be blind to the long term consequences of decisions. For example, are the best Dutch entrepreneurs government-aligned to the extent that they will create their startup or business in the Netherlands, knowing that they won't be able to sell shares…
(Again, by way of counterexample, I took a huge paycut to move from the US to Europe, but y'know, my quality of life is better, I live in a much safer, more pleasant place and I don't need to see people living in cardboard boxes from the window of my nice home anymore)
This is exactly why privacy by architecture matters more than privacy by policy. The Netherlands trusted a policy ("Solvinity can't access the data") but the architecture allowed it anyway. The only real solution is cryptographic sovereignty systems where even the vendor mathematically cannot access user data, regardless of what US law says. Not we promise we won't look but we literally cannot look. Building somethin…
> The only real solution is cryptographic sovereignty systems where even the vendor mathematically cannot access user data, regardless of what US law says. ...OR, we host our data in our own countries with companies incorporated in our countries. (Sovereign cloud)
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Maybe better, but less useful. I don't carry my Identity Card at all, unless I cross the border within EU where it is used. All other functions I have in our country app. To which I can log in using physical card, but I have other options that are online.
In the Netherlands it is mandatory to carry your ID card or passport at all times.
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Is water less important to the poor person dying of thirst than to the rich guy watering his lawn?
The question is rather: Why would a person complain about dying of thirst, but refuse to go to the river to drink, and also refuse to pay for a glass of water. That makes me believe he is dishonest when he's saying he is thirsty. Or are we pretending that the Dutch people don't have any money between them to make an offer on this company?
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There are plenty of people who are willing to work for the government and the pay is pretty decent. But their stack is often Microsoft based and their IT is located in Apeldoorn. Who in their right mind would want to travel all the way to Apeldoorn. A good example of internal development in the government is the police. They have internal development teams.
Apeldoorn? I don't know any government offices there. Most of it seems to concentrate in The Hague, with some agencies spread through the country.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
We're just establishing that what one can pay is in fact not the only measure, disproving your universal assertion by counterexample. Regarding the specific case, they probably have the money. But they don't need it. Such is the beauty of regulatory power, vested in a democracy.
The common expression goes: "Put your money where your mouth is" I want to see if the Dutch will do that or not. To see the full beauty of regulatory power, you also have to be blind to the long term consequences of decisions. For example, are the best Dutch entrepreneurs government-aligned to the extent that they will create their startup or business in the Netherlands, knowing that they won't be able to sell shares…
An environment that lets you take European contracts since American companies can't compete for them is very attractive for entrepreneurs, so there is no problem here as long as they are consistent with banning American companies owning European government infrastructure.
From the article: > Kyndryl said in a statement it was "extremely disappointed" about the decision. "The politicization of this process has overshadowed the clear and important benefits this transaction would have brought to Solvinity's customers and Dutch citizens." Are these guys so tone-death to the point they even try to gaslight the world? They are trying to take over a nation's ID system. Who in their right min…
As per the Dutch language saying: "Trust comes on foot, but leaves on horseback." Trust breakdowns are costly, except to the vultures "winning" the negative-sum game. Might want to read about the fall of the Warsaw pact.
So it took your horse? Better stop trust from ever coming then.