Dutch voters narrowly rejected a controversial law on Wednesday which would have given government intelligence agencies the power to carry out mass surveillance.Both houses of parliament had already approved the proposed law, but the issue went to a national referendum after more than 300,000 people signed a petition expressing their opposition. While the referendum was non-binding, Prime Minister Mark Rutte pledged to take the outcome seriously. The legislation may now face revision, even though the prime minister supports it.With 89 percent of the vote counted on Thursday, the “no” vote had 48.8 percent, to the “yes” campaign’s 47.3 percent. Exit polls, however, had shown the vote going the opposite way.The so-called “trawling” law would give the two Dutch intelligence agencies, if approved by an independent panel, new powers to:
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- electronically tap an entire geographic area
- hack electronic devices
- create a DNA database
- keep data for three years and share it with foreign allies