The independent committee set up to monitor security service requests to hack private individuals and organisations has refused to give the green light to a plan to download information about millions of clients of an unnamed company.

The TIB said in its annual report that it refused to sanction the bulk hack because the security service had not properly made out its case and because it was out of proportion to hack the information of millions of people.

The agency did not so whether it was the domestic security service AIVD or the military service MIVD which made the request, nor give any details about the company.

The campaign against the new security legislation partly focused on the sweeping powers the rules give to the security services to gather large amounts of information.

The organisation said it checked 2,159 hack requests between May 2018 and April 2019, and rejected 4.5% of them.