Author: Joop Beris
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Dutch police to get access to DNA stored in medical facilities?
For an outgoing cabinet, our current ministers are certainly busy. Busy looking for ways to endanger our privacy, it seems. Just days after two letters from Ivo Opstelten reached the news, Dutch investigative reports for the TV program KRO Reporter have discovered documents that suggest that outgoing minister for Health, Welfare and Sports, Edith Schippers…
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“We must be free to insult each other”
If you’ve taken the time to read the page describing what this blog is all about, you will have seen that I describe myself as a free speech radical. I believe that free speech is absolutely necessary if a democracy is to function at all. I therefore believe that any form of censorship is objectionable,…
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Bits of Freedom calls for international opposition against Dutch proposal
Dutch digital rights defenders Bits of Freedom are calling for international opposition against the latest proposal from Ivo Opstelten, wanting to grant police the right to hack into suspects computers, even across borders. In an article on their blog, they outline the cybersecurity risks related to this proposal. I’m also hoping for a lot of…
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Data snooping only catches ‘incompetent criminals, accidental anarchists’
British Information Commissioner Christopher Graham told a committee of MPs and peers last Tuesday that the draft Communications Data Bill as it stands would only put a stop to “the incompetent criminal and the accidental anarchist”. This proposed bill would give British law enforcement and secret service more access to telecoms data.
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Another letter from Ivo
Dutch minister of Justice Ivo Opstelten is certainly being a busy boy. Just a few days have passed since his last letter and now he has written another one, equally worrying or perhaps more so. In short, he is suggesting in an as yet not public letter that the Dutch police should have the right…
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#OpDutchPirateBay – Anonymous threatens to attack The Netherlands
On October 6, the Anonymous movement announced an attack on The Netherlands, in retaliation for several Dutch providers blocking access to The Pirate Bay, a well known torrent site. The group spoke (anonymously of course) of being displeased by this blockade.