Bulkdatasets AIVD en MIVD: de schaduw geheime dienst
Uit een onderzoeksrapport blijkt dat de AIVD en MIVD slordig en soms onrechtmatig omgaan met bulkdatasets: grote bestanden met data over miljoenen willekeurige mensen, verkregen via informanten, andere overheidsorganisaties, buitenlandse diensten of commerciële partijen.
Background
- The AIVD (General Intelligence and Security Service) and MIVD (Military Intelligence and Security Service) are the two main Dutch spy agencies — roughly comparable to the CIA/NSA or MI5/GCHQ, but with a reputation for being relatively restrained.
- "Bulk datasets" are huge collections of data (call records, location pings, web traffic, financial info) on millions of ordinary people, not just suspects. Dutch law allows this but sets strict rules on use, retention, and oversight.
- A new official investigation ordered by parliament finds both agencies were sloppy and sometimes unlawful in handling these datasets: failing to catalog what they had, keeping data too long, and searching without proper authorization.
- The 2017 law that enabled bulk collection was deeply controversial and barely passed. This report vindicates critics who warned oversight was too weak — and reignites the political debate about surveillance powers in the Netherlands.
- The author is Bert Hubert, a prominent Dutch tech analyst and former member of a government advisory panel on intelligence reform.