The Dutch government has signed a new agreement with Google's cloud division. This means that government agencies and other organizations in our country may continue to use the search engine giant's full range of cloud services. "This helps them to provide better digital services to Dutch citizens and to better support new hybrid work environments."
So writes Google in an email to VPNGids.co.uk.
Minister of Justice and Security Dilan Yeşilgöz-Zegerius confirms the agreements with Google (1) in a letter to the House of Representatives. In the letter, she does not elaborate on the agreements the Cabinet has made with Google on the use of cloud services. The minister suffices with the following: "The result of this agreement is that government organizations can, from an AVG perspective, use Google Workspace."
Minister Yeşilgöz-Zegerius promises that the cabinet will ensure that the agreements made are observed. In cooperation with Google Cloud, both parties will ensure that European privacy laws are "kept up to date."
The ministry wants to continue discussions with Google to extend the scope of the agreements to other Google services. "This is desirable to enable a (multi-)cloud policy within the central government," the minister wrote.
The goal of the agreement is to make using Google Workspace tools such as Chat, Docs, Meet and Sheets "easier and more efficient" for government agencies. "This will help them provide better digital services to Dutch citizens and better support new hybrid work environments," Google wrote in a press statement sent by email.
"Our tools offer the Dutch public sector more capabilities while meeting stringent security and privacy requirements. We also look forward to providing more choice and flexibility for public sector organizations and are already doing so for educational institutions nationwide, offering access to innovative solutions, with advanced security and greater resilience," said Joris Schoonis, managing director Benelux, Google Cloud.
Schoonis calls the agreement with the Dutch government "an important new step in an ongoing relationship between the Dutch central government, Dutch government agencies and Google Cloud."
The agreement is based on the Google Workspace for Education agreement signed last year. In March 2021, the administration warned that there were privacy risks associated with Google Workspace, then called Google G Suite for Eucation. A Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) by The Privacy Company found that educational institutions had "no or insufficient control" over metadata processing.
At the time, the Personal Data Authority advised educational institutions to stop using Google Workspace for the time being (2). According to the regulator, there were "fundamental questions" about privacy protection and processing of personal data that Google could not answer. Several educational organizations decided, against the regulator's advice, to continue using Google's cloud services anyway. However, they threatened to pull the plug if Google did not make agreements on privacy and the processing of students' personal data in the near future.
After feverish discussions, SURF and SIVON on the one hand and Google on the other came to an agreement. The ICT service provider and umbrella organization for primary and secondary education said they agreed on "a comprehensive set of contractual, organizational and technical measures" to eliminate all the high privacy risks that existed.
