From June, the national government can use Google Workspace in accordance with the GDPR regulations. This is what the responsible Minister of Justice and Security, Dilan Yeşilgöz-Zegerius, has written in a letter to the House of Representatives.
The national government has concluded a new agreement with the tech giant for the GDPR-compliant use of Google Workspace. This agreement should replace a previous agreement from May 2022, which was not completely watertight for the safe use of the productivity suite.
Discussion since 2021
Since May 2021, the central government and Google have been discussing the GDPR security for the use of Google Workspace by the government. This is because the Dutch Data Protection Authority (AP) indicated that the productivity suite did not comply with the GDPR, with little transparency in data collection and Google not processing the most strictly necessary data.
This should have been arranged with the agreement of May 2022. However, an audit by the Government Body Strategic Supplier Management Microsoft, Google Cloud and Amazon Web Services (SLM) showed that not all risks had been eliminated.
New appointments
The new agreement should now put an end to the lingering problem. It has been agreed to solve the remaining problems from 1 May, with completion by June 9. The SLM checks whether everything has been implemented as desired.
The SLM continues to talk to Google about newly identified problems, although it is not known what these are. In addition, a data transfer impact assessment is required for research into the risks of international transfer of personal data.
The Ministry of Justice and Security has identified privacy risks in the use of Google services in education.
