Netherlands - A Dutch cabinet minister faced calls to quit on Tuesday after
admitting he wrongly told parliament that 1.8 million telecommunications
intercepts had been collected by the US National Security Agency,
rather than the Dutch spy service.
The departure of Internal Affairs Minister Ronald Plasterk would come at
a bad time for Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s coalition government. It is
polling near its lowest level since taking power in November 2012...
Plasterk wrote on Monday in a letter to parliament that it was the Dutch
intelligence service, not the NSA, that had collected the so-called
metadata. (more)
But we already knew this seven years ago. (more)
And again last year. (more)
UPDATE:
The Dutch branch of British telecom company Vodafone has taken a stand on privacy by asking various Dutch ministries for permission to disclose the number of demands it receives for wiretapping, the telecom company announced in a statement Wednesday.
"We want to invest in a healthy ICT future by providing information to our costumers about what we do with data," Vodafone wrote in the statement.
"But if you really want to boost consumer confidence, the government should be more transparent," Vodafone added.
