Privacy First is an independent foundation with the aim to preserve and promote the right to privacy. Privacy is a universal human right and the basis of a free democracy. Privacy First was founded in 2008 and mainly consists of professional volunteers.
Our field of action
Privacy First is dedicated to protecting the right to:
Privacy and respect for private life.
Protection of personal data.
Confidential communications.
Physical integrity.
Our working methods
Privacy First aims to have these rights enshrined in law in a proper way. To this end, Privacy First is active in the areas of political lobbying, legal action and litigation, knowledge transfer and public campaigns.
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The Privacy First Foundation largely depends on individual donations for pursuing litigation and carrying out its day-to-day operations. Privacy First is recognized by the Dutch Tax and Customs Administration as an Institution for General Benefit (ANBI). Therefore your donations are tax-deductible.
The Dutch citizenry has rejected the new Dutch Intelligence and Security Services Act. This act will now have the be amended. If not, legal action will be pursued. Historic red line Wednesday 21 March... Read More...
Below, in alphabetical order, are Privacy First’s main objections against the new Dutch Intelligence and Security Services Act (Wiv2017, or ‘Tapping law’): A. Authority to hack Under the new law, the... Read More...
During a Dutch press meeting about the new Payment Service Directive 2 (PSD2), an initiative to launch a privacy quality label for payment services was announced. This quality label should encourage f... Read More...
IRMA and ‘referendum students’ win Dutch Privacy Awards In the context of the National Privacy Conference organized by Privacy First and ECP, today the very first Dutch Privacy Awards have been awarde... Read More...
Since 2013, the Dutch Association of General Practitioners has, in an essential civil case, been litigating against the private successor of the Dutch Electronic Health Record (Elektronisch Patiëntend... Read More...
"Twelve organizations teamed up to file a lawsuit to stop the implementation of a new data mining law in the Netherlands. The new law was adopted by the Dutch Senate on Tuesday and gives the intellige... Read More...
The Privacy First Foundation hereby publishes its 2016 annual report (PDF file), in which you can read everything about our main activities in 2016, including our court cases, our lobbying and our pub... Read More...
Tomorrow morning the Netherlands will be examined in Geneva by the highest human rights body in the world: the United Nations Human Rights Council. Since 2008, the Human Rights Council reviews the hum... Read More...
Privacy First New Year’s column Looking back on 2016, Privacy First perceives a renewed attack on our democratic constitutional State from within. Incident-driven politics based on the everyday humdru... Read More...
After numerous lawsuits in various European countries, the decision has finally been made: in a break-through ruling, the European Court of Justice has decided this week that a general requirement to... Read More...
The Privacy First Foundation presents its 2015 Annual Report: click HERE to download the pdf version. In this report, you will read everything about Privacy First’s daily fight to preserve and promote... Read More...
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... Read More...
The Dutch government and Parliament aim to quickly introduce the privacy-violating Tapping law. A coalition of privacy advocates will start interim injunction proceedings to prevent this from happenin... Read More...
On November 2nd 2016, the Dutch House of Representatives will address a controversial legislative proposal that will introduce four week storage of the travel movements of all motorists in the Netherl... Read More...
Mass storage of fingerprints violates the right to privacy Following the Court of Appeal of The Hague, today the Dutch Council of State (Raad van State) judged that municipal (‘decentral’) storage of... Read More...
In the Dutch Citizens v. Plasterk case about the international exchange of data between secret services, the coalition of citizens and organizations (including Privacy First) has explained its appeal... Read More...
Today the Privacy First Foundation and three other public interest groups as well as a number of Dutch individual users of Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram request Mark Zuckerberg to join the public d... Read More...
After years of legal proceedings against the storage of fingerprints under the Dutch Passport Act — one of the gravest privacy violations in the Netherlands — Privacy First and 19 co-plaintiffs were d... Read More...
Today the district court of The Hague has rendered the Dutch Data Retention Act inoperative in a break-through verdict. The judge did so at the request of the Privacy First Foundation and six other or... Read More...
A broad coalition of organizations and companies is starting interim injunction proceedings against the Dutch government. The Privacy First Foundation, internet provider BIT, the Dutch Association of... Read More...
Today the district court of The Hague ruled in the case Citizens v. [Dutch Minister of Home Affairs] Plasterk ("Burgers tegen Plasterk"). In this lawsuit a coalition of citizens and organizations (inc... Read More...
In a groundbreaking judgment, the Hague Court of Appeal has today decided that centralised storage of fingerprints under the Dutch Passport Act is unlawful. The Privacy First Foundation and 19 co-plai... Read More...
By now basically everyone is aware of the far-reaching eavesdropping practices by the American National Security Agency (NSA). For years the NSA has been secretly eavesdropping on millions of people a... Read More...
The appeal by Privacy First and 19 citizens against the Dutch government takes place today. Privacy First is of the opinion that the new Dutch Passport Act violates the right to privacy. Despite criti... Read More...
