Archived version

A month or so ago, the Netherlands reportedly blocked a US company from buying the cloud provider that runs Dutch digital identity (there is a post about it in this community here).

The more recent news is that the Chief Privacy Officer of the Dutch government, who was behind this initiative, is about to lose his job.

For more than four months, Pieter van Oordt warned internally about the risks of the takeover. When these warnings were ignored, he brought the issue to the media, the Dutch Parliament, and the Cabinet. He showed that Parliament had received incomplete and misleading information and revealed that vulnerabilities in digital infrastructure had been shared with a U.S. company. His actions forced the Ministry of Economic Affairs to block the takeover.

Instead of protection, Van Oordt faced retaliation. He was excluded from meetings, his salary increase was blocked, and his request for protection under the European Whistleblower Directive was rejected, despite an expert report confirming that he should have been protected. He has been suspended, and his dismissal is mentioned in a written notice from the Attorney General on 22 May 2026.

The dismissal has not yet been implemented.

Someone started a petition (not me), I post this here as you may want to sign it (and maybe spread the word).

The petition calls on the European Parliament and the European Commission to act:

  • Protect Pieter van Oordt from an unlawful dismissal.
  • Ensure he can continue his work safely within the public sector.
  • Place digital sovereignty of vital infrastructure high on the European agenda.
  • Hold the Dutch government and the responsible ministries accountable.

[To read the English version of the linked text, you need to scroll down. It’s below the Dutch version.]

  • jwt@programming.dev
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    2 小時前

    ‘Fun’ fact: the US company (Kyndryl) blocked from taking over the Dutch digital identity provider (for about 100 million euro) because it was deemed a security risk, still has Defence contracts with the Netherlands in excess of 2 billion euro (project GrIT).

  • trilobite@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    4 小時前

    Where is the link for signing the petition folks … let’s make things simple for those that want to show their support to this fellow and the wider case too.

  • plyth@feddit.org
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    6
    ·
    6 小時前

    In my opinion this shows that the NL and the EU don’t want to be independent and that they still trust the US. Either Trump is deception or the EU shares Trump’s values.

    • skarn@discuss.tchncs.de
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      edit-2
      4 小時前

      It’s complicated. These things are very uneven between countries, and the Netherlands so far do seem like the ones most enjoying their US dependence. This is the most egregious case, but there have been plenty of others recently where the establishment is strongly resisting digital autonomy (and let’s not even talk about Mark Rutte going from “Teflon” to “daddy’s boy”).

      Other countries are doing better. It’s interesting that the most “digital” in the continental EU, is also the one most deeply in bed with big tech (whereas German fax machines are already 100% sovereign)

  • PushButton@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    8
    ·
    7 小時前

    I am not in the EU, so I can only encourage you to do the right thing.

    Let’s go guys, don’t let this slide.

    I wish you the best luck with that.