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Netherlands blocks US takeover of vital digital supplier

politico.eu

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Re: Netherlands blocks US takeover of vital digital supplier

#211

Post by benced »

x0x0 wrote: post #184
benced wrote: post #116

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.

> Probably the best choice but doesn't change the structural problem. The structural problem is that we are destroying trading relationships built with Europe over generations.

I meant the structural problem of the EU not having a tech industry (nor any similarly prominent 21st century industry).

Yes, it would be better for America and for the EU if America acted normal but I would not advise anyone to plan hoping on that.

Re: Netherlands blocks US takeover of vital digital supplier

#212

Post by troad »

Deukhoofd wrote: post #48
thisislife2 wrote: post #28

The 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).

The issue was less privacy concerns, and more "hey lets not hand over one of the most critical pieces of infrastructure to a potentially hostile state". DigID is the user authentication platform for basically every government site in The Netherlands. A foreign government could use sanctions to pressure Dutch individuals to comply by limiting access to it.

More broadly, I think it's "let's not hand over essential infrastructure to any foreign state". Friendly or not, it doesn't matter.

Private companies ought to have the freedom to do business with whomever they like, but for essential public services, better to assume essential public infrastructure simply must not be offshored at all.

Re: Netherlands blocks US takeover of vital digital supplier

#213

Post by thisislife2 »

dncornholio wrote: post #81
thisislife2 wrote: post #28

The 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).

It's not about privacy, it's about control.

Right. And in some ways, that is disappointing, and exasperating, at the same time. Strong privacy regulations would be a better way to go about it. (Note that this criticism is not specific to Netherlands - a lot of countries are, in my opinion, treating "digital sovereignty" as a matter of control between one or more countries and corporates without any real consideration for the individuals right.)

Re: Netherlands blocks US takeover of vital digital supplier

#214

Post by rahkiin »

Muromec wrote: post #65
Cthulhu_ wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because too few IT capable people are willing to work under the government's pay scales; in most cases going private / corporate earns more. So most Dutch IT projects end up with private companies, which also means that, in the case of DigID and the secure / official messaging platform, the hosting party can charge exorbitant rates. Did you know it costs 25 cents to send a message via the Berichtenbox? So when the go…

For the record, Logius (the government owned enterprise dealing with DigID) vacancy for Java developer: https://www.werkenvoornederland.nl/vacatures/lead-java-devel... . 92k EUR per year for whatever they measure as 40 hours a week (I bet they close the shop at 4 pm). >Did you know it costs 25 cents to send a message via the Berichtenbox? In a country with paid toilets what do you expect lol

Thats the top level though, attainable with 10-15 years of ‘lead java dev’ experience. That is different from 10-15 years of java experience

Re: Netherlands blocks US takeover of vital digital supplier

#215

Post by gyanchawdhary »

gbear605 wrote: post #131
gyanchawdhary wrote: post #73

The subtitle “Across Europe, there have been increased concerns about the bloc’s reliance on American tech.” is false and really an economic chamber. The author has no basis for this claim, factually or otherwise .. maybe a small tiny group would love to see this happen, but EU is happy like rest of the world minus China to enjoy the products made by great American software companies.

Two thirds of Europeans want this - https://www.techpolicy.press/almost-two-thirds-of-europeans-... > The figures were almost universal across all categories: 62 percent of those surveyed across the five European countries said they favored or had considered replacing US data storage and payment services, while 59 percent of respondents said they would back a change from American video-conferencing companies like Zoo…

thanks for sharing .. given tech policy press's editorial perspective, i'd take the result with a grain of salt. … also tbh .. the existence of the poll is almost as interesting as the outcome .. reminds me of taleb's "wittgenstein's ruler" from black swan .. before using a ruler to measure a table, you should probably know whether the ruler itself is trustworthy.

the poll may be telling us as much about the priorities and assumptions of the people asking the question as it does about public opinion… in fact, the need to run a poll on this specific question arguably says more about the agenda behind it than the resuglt itself ..

Re: Netherlands blocks US takeover of vital digital supplier

#217

Post by mahirsaid »

thephyber wrote: post #201
mahirsaid wrote: post #198

We will see this trend of blocking US ownership more often. Any government cannot and should not give access to their own government, citizen data to foreign buyers no matter how good the relationship is. Beside the point, this is drawing clearer picture of US control: losing. Us is seen as a threat and coercion making practices start with owning data using that as control.

You seem to be assuming citizen data was being transferred. Do you have evidence of that?

That was the info of individuals = citizen's data. Am I wrong? What would be considered "citizen data" just to be clear?

Re: Netherlands blocks US takeover of vital digital supplier

#218

Post by burnerRhodov3 »

bilekas wrote: post #120

> "The politicization of this process has overshadowed the clear and important benefits this transaction would have brought to Solvinity's customers and Dutch citizens." That is unbelievably rich. It's politicians job to protect the privacy and interests of its citizens. Must be a strange idea for the US these days.

> It's politicians job to protect the privacy and interests of its citizens.

So...they outsource to Logius, who then hires Solvinity to give two for-profit corps access to your information? Why are the blocking the acquisition entirely and not... ya know, hosting their own infrastructure?

Re: Netherlands blocks US takeover of vital digital supplier

#220

Post by FaridIO »

bilekas wrote: post #120

> "The politicization of this process has overshadowed the clear and important benefits this transaction would have brought to Solvinity's customers and Dutch citizens." That is unbelievably rich. It's politicians job to protect the privacy and interests of its citizens. Must be a strange idea for the US these days.

That's a very optimistic view. They care about getting elected, and enough tech-savvy people in the country made a big enough stink about it a critical mass of "normal people" got pissed. If they cared about privacy this whole thing wouldn't have been possible in the first place.
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