The Dutch people have done a remarkable thing and as such serve as an
inspiration to the rest of us. This week the voters rejected a bill
that would have given the government sweeping powers to wire tap their
citizens communications and to retain and share the captured data with
other intelligence agencies. The vote was fairly close with younger
voters providing the edge to the no vote.
It remains to be seen, of course, whether the government will, as they
promised, respect the vote or will mumble the usual “national
security” code words as an excuse to break that promise. The vote
itself is legally non-binding so the government has some wiggle room.
Regardless of the outcome, the Dutch people have shown the rest of us
that it is possible to get past the usual Four Horsemen of the
Infocalypse scare tactics and insist that the government respect the
law and their citizens’ privacy. We could use a little of that in the
U.S. but, you know: Terrorism! Child Porn!
I hope, but don’t really expect, that this will inspire folks in the
U.S. to similarly insist that our laws and privacy be respected. I’m
sure that those of you in other lands feel the same.