Dutch cloud company in US hands: unrest at government bodies
In the media image: Growtika on Unsplash
Solvinity provides essential IT services to government bodies and has been acquired by a US company. Reijer Passchier, Assistant Professor of Constitutional Law and Professor of Digitalisation and the Democratic Constitutional State (OU), says on RTL News that concerns are justified.
Dutch government bodies have been doing their best to reduce their dependence on American big tech firms and safeguard our democratic rule of law. ‘This takeover goes directly against that’, says Passchier. It feels like 'we’re jumping out of the frying pan into the fire’. Officials at the municipality of Amsterdam, the city where Solvinity has its offices, feel 'personally betrayed'.
Passchier is concerned about the risks following this acquisition. He believes we are in danger of losing control over the cloud service in Europe. He also questions to what extent public values are sufficiently safeguarded and whether the US can demand access to the information in the cloud. According to Passchier, 'legislation on this point in Europe needs to be tightened and the companies we work with must also be scrutinised as a priority.' He adds that alternatives are available in Europe, but it is not easy to make the transition due to the so-called 'vendor lock-ins' mechanisms.
We now have to wait and see what steps the municipality of Amsterdam and the Dutch government want to take. Given the national ambition to strengthen digital autonomy, this acquisition could potentially be seen as a tipping point in the debate about dependence on US big tech.
More information?
Watch the RTL-Z news broadcast (from 5.20 min, in Dutch)
Read the RTL news item (in Dutch)