Tag: Netherlands

  • ‘Ban on downloading is pointless’

    ‘Ban on downloading is pointless’

    The ban on downloading from illegal sources doesn’t do much good in the Netherlands. That’s what jurist and technology expert Danny Mekić told the Dutch news agency ANP. In order to enforce this ban, the government would need to monitor all internet data traffic. That would soon lead to privacy issues, Mekić thinks. Furthermore, to…

  • Which airplane to take?

    The disappearance of the Malaysia Airlines jet MH370 could have been avoided, that’s what experts say. Of course it could have been avoided, in an era in which intelligence services like the GHCQ and NSA are able to track down each and every smartphone connected to a cell phone network, and Facebook and Google are…

  • Privacy panic – Should we rush to delete our Facebook and Whatsapp profiles?

    Privacy panic – Should we rush to delete our Facebook and Whatsapp profiles?

    Privacy panic – Should we rush to delete our Facebook and Whatsapp profiles? Or do we just carry on, and trust that no one will be meddling with our privacy and that our data will not be up for grabs? The news that as of last week, Facebook owner Mark Zuckerberg owns not only Instagram…

  • “You’re allowed to have something to hide”

    “You’re allowed to have something to hide”

    Nothing is a coincidence. His father moved to the Netherlands before the third Balkan war, after meeting a woman from Amsterdam on a holiday. “Grandpa stayed behind, along with the rest of my relatives. My father is a radio communications enthusiast. He has a license to communicate using powerful radios. We lived in a tall…

  • Mass surveillance of web traffic is not an ‘expansion of existing jurisdiction’

    Mass surveillance of web traffic is not an ‘expansion of existing jurisdiction’

    This Monday, the investigation report of the Commission Dessens was presented; the commission was tasked by the Dutch House of Representatives last year with evaluating the ‘Wet op de inlichtingen- en veiligheidsdiensten’ (Law on the Intelligence and Security Services, abbreviated ‘Wiv’). That commission is now suggesting an ‘expansion of the jurisdiction’ of the Dutch AIVD…

  • The war against privacy

    The war against privacy

    How relevant is data protection to people who are not currently in charge of a quoted company? How much data tracking do Facebook, Dropbox, Gmail, WeTransfer and our smartphones themselves do? Danny Mekić, fellow student at the faculty of law as well as entrepreneur, consultant and internet expert, at first blush doesn’t seem very worried…