The police are responsible for protecting us against malicious people. An increasing portion of our lives is related to the internet. The police need investigative means to do their work, both offline and online. But they should do their work within the limits set by our democracy under the rule of law. Compliance with those limits should be closely monitored. Bits of Freedom, too, monitors, especially everything related to the internet.

What's going on?

The police increasingly infiltrate our daily lives. In a digitizing society ever more data are collected about everyone. The police collect data but also have access to data collected by other parties. The police use those data to predict, for example, where certain offenses are most likely to be committed. Or to make risk assessments of citizens based on their profiles. It is crucial that citizens keep control over their data.

Technology intensifies the scale of powers without any safeguards. Crawlers, for example, can easily search and analyze large portions of the internet or social media, while real-life large-scale surveillance is much costlier. Natural barriers are taken down, again without any safeguards being installed instead. In real life police infiltrators can only be in one place at the time, while online they can easily pretend to be more people at the same time. This should not lead to more infiltration.

By using untargeted volumes, the police poke their noses in the communications of citizens, without specific cause. Insufficient consideration is given to the costs to society of untargeted surveillance powers.

In applying their powers, the police run ahead of legislation, which means they use powers without the required legal basis. Under the guise of pilot programs the police also experiment with technology without making policies first, or without an adequate basis. Debatable, as it undermines the parliamentary scrutiny of the proposed volumes.

System supervision of the use of powers is called for. Examining magistrates decide on a case-by-case basis and not all cases make it to court. We need an organization that oversees the process as a whole.

What does Bits of Freedom do?

We closely follow the above trends through conversations with experts, the police and their critics. We give our, solicited and unsolicited, opinion on developments in the light of internet freedom and privacy.

We also concern ourselves with new developments regarding detection and the internet. An example is predictive policing, or policing based on predictions. Meanwhile the police experiment with ways to prevent offenses and crimes based on big data and algorithms. Not only does that offer possibilities, it also creates room for error. Systems often operate based on prejudices and incorrect assumptions, see non-existent connections and police officers are not really taught how to critically weigh the use of those systems.

What’s more, police officers increasingly communicate online as police vloggers, there are more and more digital neighborhood police officers, social media are monitored, and using false identities police officers infiltrate Facebook groups and WhatsApp groups, with hardly any legal parameters. As soon as those issues encroach on our privacy and freedom of communication, Bits of Freedom takes action. By talking to the police, by encouraging the police to take action or by boosting the public debate.