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| The Netherlands Rejects "Big Brother" wanting to watch them |
The Netherlands put to a referendum new legislation, officially the Intelligence and Security Law.
The bill gave new powers to the Netherlands' intelligence services.
They
would be able to install wire taps on whole areas, rather than just
individuals, store information for up to three years and share this data
with other spy agencies.
An independent panel would have to approve these wire taps before they could go ahead.
Both
the lower and upper chambers of the Netherlands parliament passed the
law last year,
Voters, however, in the Netherlands appear to
have narrowly rejected the new online data collection powers for
intelligence agencies in the referendum which was held in on March 21.
With about 90% of votes counted, 48.8% have rejected the powers, with 47.3% in favour.
An exit poll by the national broadcaster had earlier suggested a victory for "yes".
Supporters say the powers could help fight terrorism, while opponents say the law could be invasion of privacy.
Prime
Minister Mark Rutte has promised to take the Referendum vote seriously --And he better do so, even though the
result is non-binding, this no-vote will require a re-debate in parliament.
This is a controversial issue, which would have allowed "Big Brother" to put their nose even deeper into Dutch citizens personal privacy, under the nebulous pretext of national security. As if there are not enough government agencies already infringing on citizens privacy.
EU-Digest
