US tech firms share Dutch regulator officials' names with Senate • Hacker News Board

Re: US tech firms share Dutch regulator officials' names with Senate

#171

Post by graemep » Sun, May 24, 2026, 11:26 AM UTC

djoldman wrote: post #141

> Under the US Cloud Act, American companies are required to hand over all information they store to the government if requested to do so, even if it is stored abroad. Hrm. It's my understanding that a US company is required to give almost no data to any government without a warrant.

True, but a US warrant. So if data is stored on a system in another country owned by an American company, they can be compelled to hand the information to the US government even if it is illegal to do so according to the law of the country where in the information is stored.

So, for example, a lot of medical information stored on AWS by the NHS could be obtained by the US government. So could a lot of financial and government data around the world. Zoom calls, Teams meetings, emails sent to GMail. Google Drive and one Drive document. Lots and lots more.

Re: US tech firms share Dutch regulator officials' names with Senate

#172

Post by jorvi » Sun, May 24, 2026, 12:16 PM UTC

dgellow wrote: post #142

dgellow wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The ECSC was about creating a common market. So we are talking about free trade within the community. Which is the literal opposite of what you’re describing? We are talking about a trade community that is literally about blocking countries from introducing discriminatory policies. I assume you see the EU as anti-democratic somehow? You seem to have pretty much everything backward. The ECSC is something covered in sc…

I wish European countries would love big government and centralization just as much as EU detractors say. We have way too much fragmentation, the overhead of coordinating so many small entities is just so high and a waste

Yup.

My hope is that eventually the "fast ring, slow ring, adjacent ring" system of the EU becomes a thing. I then imagine BeNeLux, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, maybe Czechia entering that fast ring. And as they synchronize their business and tax laws and capital markets, it'll show such an acceleration of growth that almost immediately more EU countries will want to go in on it. The nice thing is that because the "fast ring" would be more of a gentleman's agreement than a true EU institution, it wouldn't be bogged down.

The only hair in the soup I see for the start is that Denmark and Sweden would have to join the Euro, but their currencies are already effectively pegged to it anyway.

Re: US tech firms share Dutch regulator officials' names with Senate

#173

Post by dgellow » Sun, May 24, 2026, 3:43 PM UTC

graemep wrote: post #166

dgellow wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s fine, you don’t have to be the fastest growing economy in the world to be a meaningful global power and a good place where to live, get education, work. You need some level of growth, but it’s ok to no be at the top of the charts. The US has been the capitalist leader in the world for a long time and isn't going well at all, the country benefits its population very little. It’s not like only the actor with the t…

It agree that global power and the wellbeing of most people are not correlated. I think the common people of the UK were better off without and empire than with one. Many small countries with no global power have high standards of living. However, the comments I replied to above were about digital sovereignty and soft power. I am not convinced the future of the EU (or Europe in general) is as assured as you think it,…

Americans do indeed have high standard of living, and the median income is high in absolute value, however the country has way more than 2 big flaws. US households have a high level of debts and a rate of personal savings trending down. The government is following an explicit inflationary strategy by actively devaluing its currency and applying tariffs. The national debt has been increasing very significantly without any plan to ever pay it back.

That’s without taking in consideration all the political instability caused by Trump administrations: the destruction of US soft power worldwide, anti-science stances, rise in theocratic and fascistic ideologies, imperialistic tendencies, institutionalized racism making a come back, human right violations, war crimes, the normalization of blatant corruption by the country leadership, etc.

Re: US tech firms share Dutch regulator officials' names with Senate

#174

Post by trollbridge » Sun, May 24, 2026, 6:52 PM UTC

johnnyanmac wrote: post #152

trollbridge wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think the top 0.1% has a plan, either. From my personal interactions with them, they are mostly just excited they can talk to a chatbot on their phone all day, and then make questionable decisions from that - to use a recent example, deciding to be their own general contractor and make a house remodel cost an extra million and take an extra year to do.

The money and time to pursue any passion or hobby they wish, or simply travel and enjoy the world's leisures. They can run a small company, never worrying about profits to survive because their interest will keep them afloat. And instead of delegating or relaxing or honing a talent, they still have this need to pretend they are a craftmen and waste everyone's time, instead of playing Factorio or Stardew Valley or X S…

It's both maddening, but at the same time, such people are usually more eager to pay asking prices and doing the jobs is easier, so I just do them.

Getting to design a kind of fun home-automation project, actually, since he decided not to just go with a more-expensive all in one system and keeps piecemealing it, and now he can't figure it out, so I'm doing it all.

Re: US tech firms share Dutch regulator officials' names with Senate

#175

Post by miohtama » Mon, May 25, 2026, 7:36 AM UTC

miohtama wrote: post #10

microtonal wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They all talk about the importance of European digital sovereignty and then continue to do the exact opposite behind the scenes. To be honest and I say this as a Dutch person, this is typical Dutch (government). Basically two rules in Dutch politics: (1) always choose the option that pleases the US the most; (2) always postpone solving issues to the latest possible moment (US dependence, nitrogen deposition, childcar…

It's not only Dutch. Instead of building sovereignity, the EU thought they could regulate their way and force everyone to bend the knee because of their share as a trading partner. This started 20 years ago. However what has happened is that the EU's soft power is crumbling, but the politicians have hard to grasp with the reality they could somehow dictate things globally. AI will only further accelerate this. Only w…

We can see this already in the case of failed EU Digital Services Act that is teethless due to trade negotiations with the US

https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-big-tech-law-meant-to-mov...

Re: US tech firms share Dutch regulator officials' names with Senate

#176

Post by NoLinkToMe » Tue, May 26, 2026, 12:33 PM UTC

WarmWash wrote: post #95

NoLinkToMe wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is by the way how the defense was treated for decades as well. US resisted the EU from building a formidable army, instead they preferred a vassal state defense, enough to deter others from messing with Europe, not enough for Europe to be independent, and buying almost exclusively from US defense companies propping up US military R&D and financing factories during peacetime. Now that the US has pivoted to Asia s…

Reading this is like when you hear fat people talk about how all these corporations just keep forcing them to eat junk food. Meanwhile you live in the same society and eat healthy without issue or expense.

I don't understand your comment tbh...