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How the Netherlands Is Taming Big Tech


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Microsoft chief privacy officer Julie Brill, at left, during in a 2018 White House discussion on childrens use of the Internet.

Microsoft chief privacy officer Julie Brill, at left, worked with the Dutch government on privacy issues.

Credit: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

In the Netherlands, government and educational institutions have pushed big tech companies to make significant privacy changes using a carrot-and-stick approach that involves negotiating their compliance with European data privacy standards.

After the Dutch Data Protection Authority said schools would have to discontinue use of Google's education apps if privacy risks were not addressed, Google responded with new privacy measures and transparency tools that will be rolled out in the Netherlands and elsewhere later this year.

Zoom also announced substantial changes to its data protection practices and policies after talks with a Dutch cooperative, SURF, that negotiates tech vendor contracts on behalf of the nation's universities and research institutions.

Now other nations are looking to the Dutch approach as they seek to regulate big tech.

From The New York Times
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Abstracts Copyright © 2022 SmithBucklin, Washington, DC, USA


 

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