Netherlands on May 8, 2012 adopted the crucial and important legislation to safeguard an open and secure internet in the country. With the adoption of law, the country becomes the first in Europe to implement net neutrality in the law. Alongside, it has also adopted provisions protecting users against disconnection and wiretapping by providers. The net neutrality law prohibits internet providers from interfering with the traffic of their users. A technical error in the law might still be corrected in a vote on 15 May. The law further includes an anti-wiretapping provision, restricting internet providers from using invasive wiretapping technologies, such as deep packet inspection (DPI). The use of DPI gained much attention when KPN admitted that it analysed the traffic of its users to gather information on the use of certain apps. The law allows for wiretapping with a warrant. Moreover, the law includes a provision ensuring that internet providers can only disconnect their users in a very limited set of circumstances. The provision allows for the disconnection in the case of fraud or when a user doesn’t pay his bills. The provisions are part of the implementation of the European telecommunications rules and can be found here, if you wish to explore more about the law.
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