Dutch cabinet bans phones in meetings over espionage fears

The Netherlands’ new team of ministers are forced to keep their phones and smartwatches in a vault when meeting to discuss state affairs, its prime minister and former spy Dick Schoof said Friday.
Smartphones, tablets and other connected devices like smartwatches have to be put in a vault during official meetings including the weekly Council of Ministers, Schoof told public broadcaster NOS. The measure has been in place since Schoof took office early July.
“The threat of espionage is of all times. Electronic devices, smartphones, iPads … those all are microphones,” Schoof said.
Foreign powers are interested in learning more about Dutch affairs “and you want to prevent that,” he said.
The prime minister added he does allow for breaks so ministers can go check their phones.
In the previous Dutch government, smartphones were only banned when specific security topics were discussed, the Dutch daily AD that broke the news wrote on Thursday.
Schoof’s sensitivity to security and espionage risks is no surprise. Before he took the reins of the Dutch government, he was the top civil servant of the Dutch Justice and Security Ministry. Between 2018 and 2020, he also ran the Dutch intelligence services. Before that he was the country’s national coordinator in the fight against terrorism.