Profiling
Privacy First supports petition for privacy-friendly digital education
Thursday, 14 July 2022 Online Privacy
CEDO, a newly established Coalition for Fair Digital Education in the Netherlands, has recently launched a manifesto and a petition for privacy-friendly education. The coalition consists of parents, teachers, IT professionals and privacy advocates. Privacy First has for years been concerned about the increasing lack of privacy of children and school pupils. We therefore strongly support this initiative. CEDO notes that public education – i.e. today’s digital learning systems – are dominated by a handful of tech giants and is deeply worried that fundamental rights, such as the privacy of children, parents and teachers, cannot be adequately safeguarded. Whether it concerns the processing and storage of digital educational projects or the use of email services, online notepads and video tools,…
Civil rights coalition: Dutch Senate should reject far-reaching data surveillance Act
Sunday, 20 February 2022 Law & Politics
A coalition of civil rights organizations in the Netherlands that had previously won a lawsuit against System Risk Indication (SyRI) is calling on the Dutch Senate to reject an even more sweeping Bill dubbed ‘Super SyRI’. According to the parties, the proposal is on a collision course with the rule of law while the Dutch government refuses to learn lessons from the childcare benefits scandal, one of the largest scandals in Dutch politics in recent decades. The Data Processing by Partnerships Act (Wet Gegevensverwerking door Samenwerkingsverbanden, WGS) enables Dutch government agencies and companies to link together the data stored about citizens and companies through partnerships. Public authorities and companies that take part in such cooperative frameworks are obliged to pool…
The Privacy Collective press release Millions of Dutch internet users victim of unlawful collection and use of personal data The Privacy Collective takes Oracle and Salesforce to Court The Privacy Collective - a foundation that acts against violation of privacy rights - is taking Oracle and Salesforce to Court. The foundation accuses the technology concerns of unlawfully collecting and processing data of millions of Dutch internet users. The foundation has launched a class action, a legal procedure in which compensation is claimed for a large group of individuals. It is the first time that this legal instrument is used in the Netherlands in a case of infringement of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Christiaan Alberdingk Thijm, lead lawyer in…
Dutch risk profiling system SyRI banned following court decision
Wednesday, 05 February 2020 Litigation
Today, the district court of The Hague ruled on the use of the algorithm-based system SyRI (System Risk Indication) by the Dutch government. The judges decided that the government, in trying to detect social services fraud, has to stop profiling citizens on the basis of large scale data analysis. As a result, people in the Netherlands are no longer 'suspected from the very start’ ("bij voorbaat verdacht"). The case against the Dutch government was brought by a coalition of NGOs, consisting of the Dutch Platform for the Protection of Civil Rights (Platform Bescherming Burgerrechten), the Netherlands Committee of Jurists for Human Rights (Nederlands Juristen Comité voor de Mensenrechten, NJCM), Privacy First, the KDVP Foundation (privacy in mental healthcare), Dutch trade…
Fundamental lawsuit against mass risk profiling of unsuspected citizens On Tuesday October 29 at 9:30 am in the district court of The Hague the court hearing will take place in the main proceedings of a broad coalition of Dutch civil society organizations against Systeem Risico Indicatie (System Risk Indication - SyRI). SyRI uses secret algorithms to screen entire residential areas to profile citizens on the risk of fraud with social services. According to the coalition of plaintiffs, this system poses a threat to the rule of law and SyRI must be declared unlawful. The group of plaintiffs, consisting of the Dutch Platform for the Protection of Civil Rights, the Netherlands Committee of Jurists for Human Rights (NJCM), the Privacy First…
Today an important debate will take place in the Dutch House of Representatives about the introduction of Passenger Name Records (PNR): the large scale, years-long storage of all sorts of data of airline passengers, supposedly to fight crime and terrorism. Privacy First has major objections and at the end of last week has sent the following letter to the House. Today’s parliamentary debate was first scheduled to take place on 14 May 2018, but was cancelled (following a similar letter from Privacy First) until further notice. Following new parliamentary questions, the debate will now take place today after all. Here is the full text of our most recent letter: Dear Members of the House of Representatives, On Monday afternoon, this…
Civil rights groups sue Dutch government for risk profiling citizens
Tuesday, 27 March 2018 Litigation
A group of civil society organizations is bringing a case against the Dutch government because of System Risk Indication, better known by the abbreviation SyRI. According to the plaintiffs, this risk profiling system is a black box that should be stopped as it forms a risk to the democratic rule of law. The coalition of plaintiffs consists of the Netherlands Committee of Jurists for Human Rights (NJCM), the Dutch Platform for the Protection of Civil Rights (Platform Bescherming Burgerrechten), Privacy First, the KDVP Foundation (privacy in mental healthcare) and the National Clients Council (LCR). Two well-known authors, Tommy Wieringa and Maxim Februari, have in their individual capacities joined the case as plaintiffs. As ‘ambassadors’ to this lawsuit, they have fiercely criticized…
EU Passenger Name Records: every airline passenger a potential suspect
Thursday, 14 April 2016 Privacy First in the Media
EU Passenger Name Records: every airline passenger a potential suspect. Today is a historic day in both a positive and a negative sense: on the one hand European Parliament has taken an important step forward in the area of privacy by adopting the General Data Protection Regulation. On the other hand, that same parliament has today concurred with large-scale storage of data of European airline passengers. As a result, every airline passenger becomes a potential suspect. The General Data Protection Regulation will replace national privacy legislation in all EU Member States (this includes the Dutch Data Protection Act, Wet bescherming persoonsgegevens) and, in broad terms, will lead to better privacy protection throughout the European Union. Privacy Impact Assessments and Privacy…
These days, of all human rights the right to privacy finds itself under the most pressure. Therefore, it is of great importance that the government, being the largest privacy violator, is tightly controlled by means of proper legislation. With good checks & balances, for the government itself as well as for monitoring possible privacy violators such as Microsoft, Google, Apple and large ICT companies like Cisco and Intergraph that set up entire electronic surveillance infrastructures in China. Under the ‘principle of security’, current Western democracies are increasingly being led by suspicion, hate and control instead of the principles of trust, love and freedom. And all of this to protect those last three mentioned? In the view of Privacy First, the…
Since a few days there is justified commotion over two new Dutch government plans that will grossly invade people's privacy. The first one is a plan by Dutch Minister for Immigration, Integration and Asylum Affairs Gerd Leers of the Christian-democratic party CDA to start creating automatic risk profiles of every airplane passenger. Before going on a business trip or on vacation, you will get a little green, yellow, orange or red flag behind your name. Without you knowing it. This is no hint at a surprise party, no, it’s because in the eyes of the Dutch government you may be a dangerous terrorist. At Schiphol Airport you are hopefully amongst those who can quickly go passed the security checks for people with…
