The General Intelligence and Security Service (AIVD) and Military Intelligence and Security Service (MIVD) gather more information last year, reports the Assessment Committee on Powers (TIB) in its annual report. In 2024, the supervisor received 30 percent more requests to use special powers than the year before.
This includes, for example, internet traffic and telephones, or placing cameras and microphones in someone’s house. In 2024, the intelligence services received 4,445 of such requests. In 2023 there were 3,383.
The regulator sees several causes for the increase. For example, international tensions would have ensured that more requests were submitted. “A lot of geopolitics, a lot happened in 2024,” says the annual report. This is about the war in Ukraine and the conflict between Israel and Hamas. In addition, there was “an increasing threat” from Russia and China, among others. Other requests for the use of special powers, for example, were about undermining crime and terrorism.
According to the TIB, every request from the intelligence services to make use of their special powers is an infringement on the fundamental rights. Each time, the watchdog assesses beforehand whether the infringement is lawful. Last year the AIVD and the MIVD usually received permission to use their powers, in just four percent that was not the case. That is similar to a year earlier.
Worried
Friday sent the TIB and the committee
of supervision of the intelligence and security services (CTIVD) one letter To Minister Judith Uitermarkt (Home Affairs, NSC) in which they expressed their concern about the working method of the AIVD.
According to them, the intelligence service would, especially in longer -lasting investigations, unlawful the aim of. Several persons investigated would commit criminal activities that are no longer clearly a serious threat to national security or the democratic legal order. The regulators call “the AIVD to keep a close eye on these people nevertheless.