The home affairs and economic affairs ministries have begun an investigation into the “operational, legal and contractual” consequences of the takeover of the company that runs the Dutch digital identity system by an American tech firm, digitalisation minister Eddy van Marum has told MPs.

Earlier this month it emerged that cloud storage company Solvinity is about to be taken over by US company Kyndryl, raising fears about privacy and undermining efforts to reduce dependence on US technology.

Under the US Cloud Act, cloud service providers can be required by law to make information available to the US government, even if the storage is located in Europe.

Solvinity provides secure cloud and data services to a range of government clients, including the digital identification system DigiD, the MijnOverheid portal and the justice ministry. The company was chosen by Amsterdam only last month to help strengthen the city’s “digital autonomy”.

GroenLinks-PvdA MP Barbara Kathmann said the move is extremely troubling, given that “we think we should be more independent of US tech companies”.

“If the Dutch government does something that [US president Donald] Trump does not like, he can turn off our government at the flick of a switch,” broadcaster NOS quotes her as saying. “That is a real danger.”

Chris Stoffer, leader of the fundamentalist Protestant party SGP, has also sounded the alarm and called on the government to try to stop the sale from going ahead.

“What will happen to the data and where will it go?” he said. “Will we soon be able to fill in our tax forms safely? They contain a lot of confidential information. It is very worrying that this can happen like it has.”

NOS points out that in May this year Solvinity was one of a number of Dutch tech firms to draw up a “position paper” warning about the vulnerability of the government’s strategy for using cloud services.

That report states that “it is no longer unthinkable that access to government cloud services and in key sectors could be used as political pressure”.

Van Marum told MPs that it was well known that Solvinity, largely owned by a British private equity group, was looking for someone to take it over, but that the news a US buyer had been found was “a surprise”.

Van Marum has yet to answer parliamentary questions submitted by both MPs.