{"id":68580,"date":"2026-01-29T13:40:46","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T16:40:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tech.einnews.com\/article\/887639952"},"modified":"2026-01-29T13:40:46","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T16:40:46","slug":"dutch-data-protectors-sound-huge-alarm-over-tech-sovereignty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/2026\/01\/29\/dutch-data-protectors-sound-huge-alarm-over-tech-sovereignty\/","title":{"rendered":"Dutch data protectors sound huge alarm over tech sovereignty"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

The Dutch government must take steps \u201cas soon as possible\u201d to safeguard the nation\u2019s digital sovereignty, the country\u2019s data protection body warned on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The trigger for the alarm is the fate of DigiD, a digital identity service, widely used in the Netherlands, that\u2019s set to be acquired by a US company \u2013 sparking widespread concern<\/a> and debate locally about heavy reliance on US technology, not only in the public sector.<\/p>\n

There are no exit strategies for this scenario \u2013 where an important tech provider is bought up by overseas company \u2013 per the watchdog.<\/p>\n

The Dutch data protection watchdog, the Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens (AP), seized on European Data Protection Day on Wednesday to lay out its view of the risks of high dependence on a handful of overseas cloud and IT providers, also highlighting a problematic lack of mitigation measures in existing public contracts.<\/p>\n

In a letter<\/a> addressed to the Dutch economy minister that it also made public, the AP sketched a looming nightmare scenario \u2013 of \u201cmajor societal disruption\u201d \u2013 if the government fails to protect \u201cvital processes\u201d such as its communication with its own citizens, like through DigiD.<\/p>\n

All together now<\/strong><\/p>\n

The AP\u2019s letter attacks the Dutch government for treating the issue of digital autonomy as an academic exercise, rather than a pressing concern, in a recent strategy on the topic.<\/p>\n

The watchdog urges the government to centralise a policy response, instead of leaving it for public bodies to unilaterally decide how they want to deal with tech sovereignty risks. This should include clear sovereignty criteria applied to companies when awarding government contracts, it suggests.<\/p>\n

It recommends sticking to sovereign cloud criteria that the Commission set out<\/a> back in October and is already applying to some of its own cloud services procurement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe AP recommends considering a minimum [sovereignty] score and including this as a kick-out criterion,\u201d the letter reads.<\/p>\n

It also suggests that the government should include clauses in its IT contracts that would allow it to immediately void the agreement if a company is sold to an overseas buyer in the future \u2013 as well as pointing out that public services should be designed to facilitate switching providers if the worst happens.<\/p>\n

Finally, the data protectors urge the government to invest in \u201cscalable\u201d European alternatives \u2013 <\/b>specifically suggesting the need for a government cloud that\u2019s completely in Dutch hands.<\/p>\n

The Dutch economy ministry told Euractiv<\/em> it could not comment on the letter.<\/p>\n

(nl)<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/strong> <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

… about heavy reliance on US technology<\/span>, not only in the public … this scenario \u00e2\u0080\u0093 where an important tech<\/span> provider is bought up by … they want to deal with tech<\/span> sovereignty risks. This should include …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-68580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68580\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}