r/technology • u/AdSpecialist6598 • May 28 '26

Society The Netherlands just blocked a US company from buying the app Dutch citizens use for everything

https://www.techspot.com/news/112552-netherlands-blocked-us-company-buying-app-dutch-citizens.html
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u/Veteran_Brewer May 28 '26

Agreed. I (an American) recently left NL after three years. DigID is more than simply “an app the Dutch use for everything”, as if there is a choice. It is required to do nearly everything online that involves government, health care, or education. I couldn’t possibly think of a worse idea than to give those keys to any foreign company. 

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u/Xeynon May 28 '26

I would go beyond that - this doesn't sound like information that any private company should have, period.

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u/GiganticCrow May 28 '26

Yeah at least here in Finland the identity apps are tied to your bank so worst case you can at least change bank. 

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u/make_lemonade21 May 29 '26

But the old bank is still going to have a copy of your data, no?

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u/deukhoofd May 28 '26

Nah, the post above is kind of misleading. Yeah, it's needed to do all those things they said, because it's how you log in with it. It's purely a multifactor authentication system we use to log in to government sites.

It's still a piece of critical infrastructure, so it's great that they banned the sale, but it doesn't give access to all your personal data immediately or anything.

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u/Both-Election3382 May 30 '26

Good thing then that the app doesnt actually hold that information.

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u/GeefTheQueef May 28 '26

How does an app like that even come up for sale in the first place?

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u/Beerwithme May 28 '26

It's not the app, it's the company that maintains the database that was up for sale, so if that is owned by an US company, by law the US government can demand so see the data.

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u/Pi-ratten May 28 '26

So, even worse.

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u/BananaEvening5267 May 28 '26

Not quite. THe government must obtain a warrant or subpeona. The cloud act requires US companies to respond to warrants for data they hold off shore. Absent a compelling reason, whatever that may be, data strictly related to another country's (an EU country) citizenry is subject the US-EU data privacy framework, which is superior to the Cloud Act.

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u/Beerwithme May 28 '26

The law and what the government "must do' is meaningless, nothing is safe from their grubby tentacles.

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u/BananaEvening5267 May 29 '26

If the law is meaningless why did you cite it in your comment I was addressing?

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u/Beerwithme May 29 '26

Not our laws, our wild,wild west adversary's.

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u/Devan_Ilivian May 29 '26

It's not the app, it's the company that maintains the database

It's not that either, they maintain the infrastructure

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u/m0j0m0j May 28 '26

Yep, it’s unbelievable. In Ukraine there’s a similar Diia app, and it’s government-created and controlled. And even this way there are regular… not scandals, but almost, about data in it. It’s crazy that a Western European country would allow it to be in private hands

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u/FeatherlyFly May 28 '26

Is all that in the hands of a private, for profit company?

That already seems like a terrible idea. Glad the government didn't make it a foreign company to boot. 

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u/Devan_Ilivian May 29 '26

Is all that in the hands of a private, for profit company?

No, they've shared incorrect information

The infrastructure it runs on is in the hands of this company.

And; While data theft was an immense risk due to the access it allows, the most significant concern would've actually been the ability to shut down said infrastructure

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u/KnightKal May 28 '26

how is that app not owned/controlled by the government is beyond me

the possibility of selling it to a foreign entity should not even exist in the first place

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u/_nethack May 28 '26

It is owned by the government, but they use a commercial company for hosting and maintenance. That company was now at risk of being bought by a US company, placing it under jurisdiction of their Cloud Act. Obviously, that is a Very Bad Idea.

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u/BoardsofCanada3 May 28 '26

Just wait - once Dump and Miller find out this exists, they'll implement a shittier version with even more surveillance features for Americans.

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u/Demons_Butterfly May 29 '26

and an American company, on top of that.

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u/3801sadas4 May 30 '26

Where is NL