The Netherlands Is Too Small To Fight the NSA

“The Netherlands is too small to fight the NSA.” These were the words of Jacob Kohnstamm, chairman of the Dutch Data Protection Authority, during an interview with the Dutch news website nu.nl.

To deal effectively with American spying, cooperation is needed at a European level; the Netherlands cannot do it on its own. “The dominance of corporate America is such that Europe-wide privacy laws are needed in order to reduce the threat as much as possible.”

“Cancel Treaties with the U.S. if Need Be”

Kohnstamm believes that the EU needs to issue threats; it could, for example threaten to cancel agreements with the U.S.

Europe might also work on its own stimulus package and look to develop its own cloud computing capacity, in order to reduce the dominance of Silicon Valley and of American companies. “Then America would be forced to listen to Europe’s economic and financial voice,” argues Kohnstamm.

“European Countries Are No Match for the NSA on Their Own”

Neither the Dutch intelligence agency nor those of other European countries is able to stand up to the NSA individually, argues the chairman of the Dutch Data Protection Authority.

“The NSA has some 70 to 80,000 employees. That is the same as the working population of Tilburg (a reasonably large Dutch town). They have a budget that is almost comparable to the Dutch national product.”

“The Privacy of Citizens Is at Stake”

During the interview Kohnstamm reacted to the bugging scandal involving the NSA, something he described as a “shocking case” in which citizens’ right to privacy has “come under threat.”

Information made public by whistle-blower Edward Snowden reveals, among other things, that the NSA monitors 5 billion mobile phones on a daily basis and uses cookies which monitor and hack Internet users. The NSA’s victims have even included the Dutch Intelligence Agency.