Dutch intelligence service AIVD wants to restrict encryption on chat services like WhatsApp and Telegram as much as possible, head of the service Rob Bertholee said in an interview with the Volkskrant. According to him, being able to read suspected person’s communication is essential for “protecting the legal order”.
With this position, the AIVD is standing counter to the government. Dutch politics find strong encryption very important for protecting privacy and calls restricting its availability “undesirable”. Bertholee does not understand this position. “Then you as government also have to accept that we are no longer able to read the communication of terrorists.”
The AIVD head also does not understand why companies and privacy organizations so strongly hammer on the privacy of users of chat services. “I also think that privacy protection is very important, but would the people who set privacy as an extreme goal be just as enthusiastic in pursuing it if they were the victims of an attack?” According to him, the threat towards the Netherlands has “never been this big”.
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