Dutch Wiretaps: Too Many To Bother Counting

Posted by timothy on Saturday March 1, 2003 @08:16AM from the just-trust-on-this-one-and-these-ones-too dept.

Brenno de Winter writes "While the U.S. wiretapped 1,350 phonelines, the Netherlands managed to wiretap approx. 10,000 phonelines in 1999. With the new Telecom Act the Dutch government could wiretap even easier and are doing it so much they cannot count it anymore. Bits of Freedom (BOF) requested statistics under the Dutch Freedom of Information Act and were denied it since it was to hard to gather the data. Even though telecom and internet operators regularly send bills for operational wiretapping costs, the ministry of Justice claims it doesn't keep account of the numbers. What scares you more a government that wiretaps or a government that wiretaps and doesn't know what it is wiretapping?"

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Not Good.... by the+eric+conspiracy · 2003-03-01 09:55 · Score: 4, Interesting

Given that the US also has a population more than 15 times that of the Netherlands that means somebody living there is more than 100 times more likely to be wiretapped than in the US.

That seems to be pretty incongruous for a country that prides itself on the personal freedoms of its citizens.
Re:I Don believe this! by the+eric+conspiracy · 2003-03-01 10:08 · Score: 4, Interesting

I've seen reports in a variety of places that wiretaps are far more prevalent in Europe than the US.

I also remember a flap last year caused by the Dutch goverment requiring all ISPs to install wiretaps.

The following is an article discussing some of the Dutch wiretaps issues:

http://www.mail-archive.com/cryptography@wasabis ys tems.com/msg02595.html

If I were a European citizen I would be asking some question of my government.