Minister for Digitalization successfully pushes for investigation into government compliance with privacy law
When the new (and first!) Dutch Minister of Digitalisation entered into office, she extensively consulted civil society on her draft working agenda. One of the pieces of feedback we gave was that, although the government has lofty ambitions when it comes to the use of technology and data, she hasn’t been able to guarantee a sound basis on which to build. The results are "innovation" and "experimentation" grounded in discriminatory processes and non-compliance with the law, leaving citizens vulnerable to abuses of power and arbitrary treatment and leading to an erosion of the rule of law.
We were therefore pleased to see that the minister planned to prioritize an investigation into the government’s compliance with privacy law and even happier when the results arrived expediently. We support the researchers’ findings and calls to action, most notably the need for the government to invest in legal protection and internal supervision. However, we will also continue to call for an investigation into the extent of non-compliance with privacy law by law enforcement and intelligence agencies. These agencies often have the most far-reaching powers and access to the most sensitive data. Over the past years, they have also repeatedly and blatantly ignored the law. Structural improvements are essential if these institutes want to continue to be able to count on the legitimacy provided to them by the law and, with that, on people’s acceptance of their power.