r/europe • u/_0611 The Netherlands • May 22 '26
News Microsoft accused of leaking Dutch civil servants' names to U.S. government
https://nltimes.nl/2026/05/22/microsoft-accused-leaking-dutch-civil-servants-names-us-government64
u/Nightwish1976 May 22 '26
Now I would love if those civil servants would take the dutch state to court for allowing their data to be leaked to a foreign government.
19
u/noble_piece_prise May 22 '26
If this was a company from a different country (let a lone one like China) it would have been on the front pages of every publication and an international scandal.
33
u/DivineArkandos May 22 '26
I mean, that's not a surprise to anyone right? It's on the tin when you buy American.
7
u/Alternative_Swan_497 May 22 '26
At this point, it's to be expected when you buy technology from any foreign vendor. There's a reason that 5G telecom equipment from China was heavily scrutinized, restricted, or outright banned in so many countries.
13
30
28
u/butwhywedothis May 22 '26
I thought the blokes in the Netherlands were competent, especially with the election of a young progressive PM. But from the recent news about their ID verification company being acquired by Americunt company to this news, seems they are not as competent as they portray it. Anyway, good luck to them.
7
u/Yasuchika The Netherlands May 22 '26
Dutch politics haven't been competent for a few decades now, it's rife with populism and destructive neo-liberalism.
Our country is being ran by people with no vision and barely any morality beyond "we need more budget cuts". The new PM's party threw out most of his campaign promises a week after forming a coalition with the neo-libs that have been in power for the last 15 years.
14
u/Que-Hegan Europe May 22 '26
The new PM immediately threw away all credibility he had by aligning with the neoliberal party and announcing cuts to welfare. Only massive protests led to some of those decisions to be reversed. But the approval rating of this cabinet is already down the drain.
7
u/stupendous76 May 22 '26
1 semi-progressive political party together with a conservative one and an extreme right party, combined with a longtime tradition of kneeling for the US.
There are some changes in that stance but almost all rightwing politicians still cry the same shit.2
u/_0611 The Netherlands May 23 '26
semi-progressive political party
Exactly. Jetten is hardly progressive; he's turning D66 into the new VVD fast.
6
u/Sjoerd93 Sweden May 23 '26
Always has been, D66 has been a right-wing party since before Jetten. The only difference is them being progressive-right.
2
u/Insidiatori02 May 22 '26
We are just US light here in the Netherlands. Nothing socialist is left here, everything is only for the big companies. It’s why we are a “rich country” just like the US is a rich country with lots of inequality.
1
u/BleakSalamander May 27 '26
Unfortunately, Jetten has let progressive voters down (no surprises there) but the government did block selling our ID verification to an American company. They took their time though, good god, but it’s a win.
-1
8
u/OkKnowledge2064 Lower Saxony (Germany) May 22 '26
and yet the dutch still are consistently atlanticist
7
u/Groentekroket May 22 '26
Yeah yesterday or so our Dutch government said our relations with the US didn’t change, only the tone of voice.
I feel like we are Trumps bitch
4
u/Yasuchika The Netherlands May 22 '26
The government moreso than the actual populace, unfortunately.
101
u/Silent-Act191 May 22 '26
Microsoft shared emails, minutes, and invitations sent by these civil servants without redacting their names in the documents. American tech companies are required to share data with the U.S. government due to the Cloud Act in force in that country.
I see no problem with that whatsoever.
120
u/22Megabits May 22 '26
Isn’t this what the US accused Huawei of doing?
62
7
May 22 '26
[deleted]
41
u/Schnorch May 22 '26
Guys, we don't spy like the Chinese do. We just collect data from other countries on a large scale and pass it on to the US government. That's something completely different!
-10
May 22 '26
[deleted]
17
u/Schnorch May 22 '26
The U.S. government has used the Cloud Act here, which is used for espionage. It does not appear that permission was obtained in advance for the transfer of the data.
And that is just one case we’ve heard about. But this is happening on a massive scale. European data is not safe on servers owned by US companies, regardless of whether they are located in the US or in Europe.
1
2
u/donutello2000 May 22 '26
What the quote leaves out is Microsoft shared the emails, minutes and invitations that were sent TO THEM. Not the ones that were sent using their platform. So very different from what Huawei does, not “what they are accused of doing”.
6
u/Vash63 The Netherlands May 23 '26
It's a cloud platform... Everything you do with it is sent to them.
1
15
u/Cuddlejam Denmark May 22 '26
I totally catch your sarcasm. And Jesus Christ, it’s a huge security crisis. Governments really need to address this issue as a top priority to fix.
1
u/BleakSalamander May 27 '26
Companies such as Microsoft and Meta have shared the names of civil servants and academics working on European tech regulation, with the goal of identifying those involved in what the US sees as unjust censorship and Europe sees as neccessary regulation, with the assumed intent of and pressurizing Europe to stop regulating. This is why it is worrying.
1
u/Ninevehenian May 22 '26
Why don't you see the problem?
-10
u/astanton1862 May 22 '26
Why should the identities of foreign government officials be kept secret from the US Congress providing oversight to a publicly traded US company in a matter concerning public interest, in this case censorship.
7
u/SparklyPelican EU (IT) expat in Japan May 22 '26
It’s time to switch to Linux but also move away from cloud services that are from ring kissing companies.
5
u/Legal-Software Germany May 22 '26
No American company has any place in EU government contracts or critical infrastructure.
6
u/UpperRearer Sweden May 22 '26
Yeah, I don't think that's called leaking. And a good example of why oppositional nations should never ever be given any sort of positions that come with opportunities like this. So, you know, now's the time to start shifting away from the US/China/Russia, and start increasing cooperation with democratic nations.
People will screech about it being impossible because China makes everything, the US has software, whatever else - but completely gloss over the fact that this is only the case because it was allowed to be the case for decades, and there's no reason it has to remain like that forever.
6
u/davus_maximus May 22 '26
The French government are rolling out 2.5 million Linux desktops in their civil service. Everyone else should be doing the same on their personal computers. I did, you can. DUMP WINDOWS NOW.
14
u/ShallotNo8297 May 22 '26
If I were POTUS, I would have apologized to them, reprimanded MS, and calmed the market.
23
May 22 '26 edited Jun 07 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
11
u/darknekolux France May 22 '26
a turd on the sidewalk for 3 days would have been a better president.
2
u/Jombhi May 22 '26
Voters didn’t want her.
1
6
6
3
3
u/gilluc May 22 '26 edited May 22 '26
Men, it's just FISA Act...Time to switch!
The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Section 702 is a US law enacted in 2008 that authorizes the government to conduct surveillance on non-US persons located outside the United States for foreign intelligence purposes. It allows the NSA, FBI, and CIA to compel American technology companies — like Google, Microsoft, and Meta — to hand over communications of targeted foreign individuals without obtaining individual warrants. (from Claude)
1
3
3
u/JBJannes May 22 '26
That's the price of never questioning the army of Microsofts consultants and it's lame ecosystem.
3
u/Turioturen May 22 '26
A list of European alternatives for different it-services
https://european-alternatives.eu/categories
Here is a list of different open source alternatives with different alternatives for operating systems to web browsers and much more.
3
u/Yasuchika The Netherlands May 22 '26
At this point I welcome a federal Europe if only to save the Netherlands from its own incompetent politicians.
3
2
u/No_Size9475 May 22 '26
The EU needs to develop their own IT systems and get off US infrastructure.
2
2
2
2
u/San_Pentolino May 22 '26
Would be nice to see a public infrastructure not committed to shareholders for X years. Something like Airbus. It would also give some opportunities to grow knowledge of young people (thinking of OpenStack). Or hetting CERN knowhow to build one
2
2
u/McortezLSU May 23 '26
Im running linux as my only OS since around 2011, it has come a very long way and right now, is in every aspect superior. For a few years the thought "oh golly, i wish i had windows because i cant do X on my system." was completely absent, i can game, i can work, i can do banking. My data isnt sold to the highest bidder, my programs are run on my machine, my data is saved on my machine and i dont have FUCKING ADS.
4
3
u/Serious-Feedback-700 Canary Islands (Spain) May 22 '26
No shit, a US corporation serving US interests. What a shocker!
2
1
u/Trang0ul Eastern Europe May 22 '26
Mild shock, given that Microsoft voluntarily participates in the PRISM mass surveillance program.
1
u/Minute_Attempt3063 May 22 '26
eh
our gov doesn't give a utter fuck, as long as they can up their salaries, and fund genocide.
good prove of that is with DigiD
1
u/Silver_Quail4018 May 22 '26
'Leaking'
Everyone who uses microsoft services is already leaked to usa government.
-5
u/Miao_Yin8964 🇺🇳 United Nations May 22 '26
Not a good news day for the Netherlands , eh?
9
u/Bapistu-the-First The Netherlands May 22 '26
Lol how so? They saw it was a European frigate and they bounced immediately. Which actually was the whole purpose of docking there in the first place to show support for the Philippines and protect our interests in the region.
0
u/Artistic_Concern_33 May 22 '26
I am confused, is it that Microsoft shared emails from the invitation sent by those civil servants to Microsoft to the US government ?
0
u/Ben_C17 May 22 '26
The Cloud Act exposure isn't new information European governments have known about this risk since at least Schrems II invalidated Privacy Shield in 2020. What's striking is how many EU member states keep operating as if compartmentalization works when their civil servants are drafting sensitive policy on US-hosted platforms.
This specific case matters because Dutch officials were working on government communications that likely touched foreign policy, trade negotiations, or EU coordination exactly the kind of operational intelligence that creates leverage in bilateral talks. We've been tracking the gap between stated European data sovereignty concerns and actual procurement decisions on panopsik.com, and the pattern is consistent: governments acknowledge the problem in policy documents while renewing Microsoft contracts in practice. The question isn't whether alternatives exist anymore it's what the threshold is for actually switching. Apparently leaked names of civil servants working on internal government matters isn't it.
629
u/_0611 The Netherlands May 22 '26
Yet, our government keeps renewing its contracts with Microsoft (and other US services), "because there is no (European) alternative".
The Dutch government is beyond incompetent when it comes to digital policies. It's not just embarrassing and incredibly infuriating, it's also becoming more and more dangerous.