Supervisor rebukes AIVD about data sharing with foreign services

The AIVD supervisor is critical of the sharing of data with foreign security services. The protection of the individual is insufficiently guaranteed and there are some points of structural illegality.

The Supervisory Committee of the Intelligence and Security Services came to its critical conclusion after examining the exchange of personal data of alleged jihadists. The AIVD is increasingly collaborating with foreign intelligence and security services, and the regulator investigated how this collaboration is organized and how it functions.

The Ctivd notes that there are still too few guarantees for the protection of citizens in this exchange. According to the regulator, the collaborating services are both responsible for the consequences of any unlawful acts, but there is insufficient agreement on safeguards.

The AIVD made no risk weighting for the cooperation with foreign services and the service did not say anything about the reliability of the shared data. According to the Ctivd, this constituted structural illegality. The AIVD also shared unevaluated data without the required permission of the minister.

The critical report comes after the referendum in which a majority voted against the Wiv 2017. The ISS Act 2017 expands the AIVD’s powers to include the untargeted collection of bulk data via cable.