Jansen and Jacobs wrote this fact sheet at the request of the Parliament. Previously, Jansen and Jacobs advised the Parliament in a position paper and a round-table discussion on the so-called Cyber Act, which temporarily grants the AIVD and MIVD more operational capabilities to respond quickly to digital spying and cyberattacks.
The Wiv 2017 provides the foundation for the activities of the AIVD and MIVD. This law came to be popularly known as the 'Drag net Act' (Sleepwet) because of its provisions for large-scale data collection. Currently, the services do not seem to lack essential authorities. An expansion of their authority is therefore not being considered at this time.
In their fact sheet, Jansen and Jacobs emphasize that the new legislation will have to revolve mainly around (the privacy safeguards for and supervision of) AI and automated data analysis. After all, a modern secret service no longer searches manually for threats to national security, for example in public sources or assigned records, but has specialised software analyse large data sets and communication streams.
Jansen and Jacobs argue that the supervision of the services should be consolidated as much under one specialized supervisory body, with a binding intervention capability. This will also immediately require a new, dedicated legal procedure at the Council of State. As far as they are concerned, the centre of attention in supervision will have to shift from the proverbial front (ex ante) to the back (real time). They also warn against a (further) increased complexity of regulations. The legislator must ensure that this already highly complex legislation does not become even more convoluted.