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Did you charge them fees? It can be possible to reasonably recover costs associated with these efforts.


No, I didn't. Not sure this is possible in the Netherlands. I had an hour long Teams call for them to know what data they could request. After the formal request came in it took a good part of the day to get everything they requested. Received some follow up requests so probably a full day "lost". If nothing else it was a good test of the backup system.


If it happens again, it may be worth asking. I don’t think this is the kind of thing agencies offer cash for out of hand.

I don’t know how law-enforcement is funded there, but presumably they do use contractors and service providers.

If their alternative is to pay a contractor who has no familiarity with your system, it would be preferable to simply pay the person who knows what they’re doing and be done with it.


It doesn't work that way. Government forces us to use their service for a fee, and forces us to provide services for free. Tax filing, and handling authorities requests are prime examples.


It does sometimes in the US.

Some agencies will pay companies to perform digital forensic work necessary to offer data. Even administration of the job of forensic work, ie PM level assistance can be compensated.

This includes if a company is served a subpoena and a warrant to provide certain data.

Billing can be good, certainly valley-competitive.

Iirc, this has been well covered as a thing that happens at big tech companies, including fb, but it also can apply to small ones.




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