Dutch intelligence services AIVD and MIVD are continuing to share information with their American counterparts despite concerns about security, an investigation by the Volkskrant and Nieuwsuur has shown.

Former Dutch intelligence officials are worried that sharing datasets, which may contain information about Dutch citizens, could pose a risk in light of the Trump administration’s approach to democratic rights and privacy protection.

The investigation showed the Dutch security service AIVD and military security service MIVD have not scaled down their cooperation with American intelligence services, with one source citing overriding interests. “In some matters, cooperation is essential,” he said.

Recent incidents involving citizens who were stopped at American airports, including one person being denied entry because of messages on a phone, highlight the importance of being “very careful” sharing unfiltered datasets, a former AIVD official said.

Other events in Washington, such as the sharing of classified military information on message service Signal, in the presence of a journalist who was mistakenly invited to the group chat, and the United States’ increasingly close relationship with Russia and critical stance towards Ukraine, are also major red flags, they said.

According to former AIVD director general Rob Bertholee, information exchanges should only take place under strict conditions. “The situation in Washington has changed very quickly in the last six months and not in a good way,” he told Nieuwsuur.

Former MIVD director Pieter Bindt said recent developments have “little to do with the democratic rule of law”. It is a “no-brainer” that this should lead to a re-evaluation of the relationship,” he said.

The AIVD and MIVD have had a system in place since 2015 in which they weigh up their relationship with foreign services according to their reliability, the rule of law and the level of data protection. That led to Austria being considered high risk when it was discovered that the country intelligence service had been infiltrated by the Russian FSB.

The AIVD and the MIVD did not want to comment on the current security status of their relationship with the CIA or NSA, saying that the United States remains an important ally. “In general, we can say that we are weighing all relevant circumstances in executing our work. If developments in a country necessitate we review the way we cooperate, we will do so,” they said in a joint statement.

The investigation showed that there has been no official review of the conditions since Donald Trump’s inauguration.