MPS have made a fresh call for Dutch companies and services to find alternatives to American cloud storage services because of concerns about security.

Research by the public broadcaster NOS found that two-thirds of providers of essential services in the Netherlands are connected to at least one US-based cloud server.

They include 98% of local councils, 98% of health insurers, 92% of hospitals and even the NOS itself.

The risks of being dependent on American data storage have been highlighted by the impending sale of Dutch cloud services firm Solvinity, which manages the DigiD identification system that citizens are required to use when contacting government agencies, health insurers and pension providers.

If the sale to US IT giant Kyndryl goes ahead, secure information stored on its servers would be subject to the US Cloud Act, which gives the American government the right to access any information held on its servers.

Critical infrastructure

The parties that are expected to form the next coalition government, D66, VVD and CDA, have said they want to protect confidential data, starting with “critical infrastructure” such as patients’ medical records and information from the intelligence services.

Dutch cloud service providers told MPs in a briefing on Monday that they could handle 80% of the data storage, software and e-mail services currently provided by US companies.

Wido Potters, of Dutch cloud services firm BIT, said: “We are asking politicians to take action, starting today by making an inventory of the dependence so that we can transfer it tomorrow from the United States to Europe.”

Simon Besteman of the Dutch Cloud Community, which represents cloud services companies in the Netherlands, said EU tendering rules would need to be changed to create a level playing field for European firms.

Barbara Kathmann, of left-wing opposition party GroenLinks-PvdA, said the situation was becoming increasingly urgent. Back in March last year MPs passed a motion tabled by Kathmann that called on the government to stop migrating confidential information to US cloud services.

A report by the audit office also warned that “foreign governments, particularly the US, could access or even amend information from the Dutch government or private individuals”.

Kathmann said on Monday: “We keep hearing that there is no alternative to Microsoft or Google, but we have shown today that there clearly is and that we can make the Netherlands digitally independent.”