The Court of Justice of the EU on 22 November emphatically struck down the public accessibility of the Ultimate Beneficial Owner (UBO) register. The general public having access to information on beneficial owners of companies and other legal entities constitutes a serious breach of privacy. In a principled ruling, the 15 judges of the Grand Chamber of the European Court explain that the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing is primarily a matter for public authorities. The fight against money laundering does not justify making a register containing privacy-sensitive data public to everyone, the highest European court stated. The entire text of this landmark decision can be found here.

Privacy First very much welcomes the critical and principled ruling by the Court of Justice. It provides a substantive ruling on the questions that Privacy First previously raised about the UBO register.

In early 2021, Privacy First filed summary proceedings against the UBO register, insisting that the Dutch court would take the case to the EU Court of Justice. The Dutch judge subsequently declined to do so because a similar Luxembourg case had just been submitted to the Court of Justice. The preliminary injunction court did however confirm that there is every reason to doubt the validity of the European Money Laundering Directives that form the basis of the UBO register. The judge ruled that the possibility could not be excluded that the highest European court would conclude that the public nature of the UBO register is not in line with the principle of proportionality. This judgment was upheld on appeal.

‘The introduction of the UBO register would mean that privacy-sensitive data of millions of people will be up for grabs’, Privacy First’s attorney Otto Volgenant of Boekx Attorneys commented at the time. ‘On all sides there are strong doubts whether this is actually an effective means in the fight against money laundering and terrorism. It’s like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. The Court of Justice of the European Union will eventually adjudicate the case, and I expect it will annul the UBO register.’

This is indeed what happened last week. The public character of the UBO register is off the table. The main considerations of the EU Court of Justice ruling can be summarized as follows:

Making UBO data available to the public is a serious intrusion into the privacy of UBOs. Based on the information from the UBO register, a profile can be created that includes certain personal identification data, details on the person’s financial situation as well as the economic sectors, countries and specific companies in which they have invested. A freely accessible UBO register makes these data available to an unlimited number of individuals, including those who wish to view it for reasons that need not be related to anti-money laundering regulations. Not only are the UBO data freely accessible to anyone, it can also be stored and further disseminated by third parties, making it increasingly difficult or even illusory for UBOs to defend themselves against improper use.

Combatting money laundering and terrorist financing is a public interest objective that may justify the privacy intrusion that arises with a UBO register, but this does not mean without question that everyone should have access to that register.

The EU Court explains that the following questions must be assessed in this context:
1. Is the public accessibility of the UBO register an appropriate tool in the fight against money laundering?
2. Does the intrusion on the privacy of UBOs through public access meet the requirement of subsidiarity and is the public access limited to what is strictly necessary? In other words, can the fight against money laundering not reasonably be carried out just as effectively in another way that less affects the fundamental rights of the individuals concerned?
3. Is the privacy intrusion resulting from full disclosure of the UBO register proportionate, when weighing the importance of combatting money laundering on the one hand and the seriousness of the privacy intrusion on the other?

The first of these questions was addressed by the Court of Justice only briefly: a publicly accessible UBO register may, through the resulting transparency, contribute to an environment that is less likely to be used for money laundering. But with regard to the other two questions, the public nature of the UBO register does not meet the requirements to be imposed.

The Court’s answer to the second question is that the privacy violation that is the consequence of full disclosure of the UBO register is not strictly necessary. A previous version of the anti-money laundering regulations stated that ‘persons or organizations that can demonstrate a legitimate interest’ can have access to the UBO register. In its ruling, the Court specified the groups that may have such a legitimate interest:
a. the press and civil society organizations concerned with preventing and combatting money laundering and terrorist financing;
b. individuals who want to know the identity of a UBO in the context of a potential financial transaction; and
c. financial institutions and authorities involved in the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing.

The European Commission indicated earlier that it is difficult to give a legal definition of the concept of ‘legitimate interest’. The Court, however, found this too short-sighted: the fact that it is difficult to define this concept does not justify giving access to everyone. And so the public accessibility of the UBO register was cast aside, because the invasion of UBO’s privacy is not limited to what is strictly necessary.

In answering the third question, as to the proportionality of the privacy invasion in relation to the importance of anti-money laundering objectives, the Court also allows privacy to prevail. The fight against money laundering and terrorist financing is primarily a task of governments and financial institutions, which already had full access to the UBO register. Extending access to the UBO register to the entire public results in a significantly greater invasion of privacy, without being offset by benefits in the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing.

For the Netherlands, this means that the UBO register may no longer be publicly accessible with immediate effect. Immediately after this ruling, Privacy First called on the Dutch Minister of Finance to comply with the Court’s decision as soon as possible. On the very day of the ruling this call was heeded and an end was put to the public accessibility of the UBO register. This is a major victory for privacy. The goal of the lawsuit that Privacy First started in 2021 has thus been achieved. The UBO register is no longer publicly accessible. In the event the Dutch government fails to comply with this ruling, Privacy First will start new summary proceedings to enforce the EU Court ruling.

There will possibly be a discussion about the delineation of the group of persons who have access to the UBO register on the basis of a ‘legitimate interest’. This discussion is best conducted at the EU level, as anti-money laundering rules are also EU rules. This will also allow the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) to get involved in the substance of this matter. This independent supervisor already in 2017 advised that public accessibility of the UBO register would not be proportionate.

Unfortunately, the European legislature did not heed that advice at the time. It happens more often that the European legislator drafts rules that are a major violation of privacy, which, years later, the highest European court indeed confirms to be the case. It is good that the European Court of Justice is critical and weighs the importance of privacy. After all, the courts have the final say in any democracy under the rule of law, and the EU Court of Justice’s Grand Chamber has ruled in favor of privacy time and again in recent years. But it would be even better if regulators themselves valued the importance of privacy protection as it would mean governments would not commit as many privacy violations in the first place.

It’s of paramount importance that the Netherlands leads the way not only in terms of digitalization, but also in the field of digital privacy. Public authorities should make people aware of the privacy risks in the digital world and set a good example by providing sufficient privacy-friendly alternatives to existing apps and platforms. This call was made today by a broad coalition of organizations and companies – the Privacy Coalition – to members of the Dutch House of Representatives, who were handed a manifesto. 

The new Privacy Coalition notes in a joint manifesto that more and more digital platforms, services and apps are collecting users’ data without them realizing it. Those data are resold and integrated and then used to track people, follow their online behavior and influence them. “This creates digital profiles on the basis of which companies and even public authorities make decisions that have a major impact on our lives, without us being able to influence it”, the coalition states. It also warns of further polarization in society because people are no longer in control of what information they can and cannot see online.

Freedom of choice

Legislation is being drafted at both the European and national level to curb the unbridled use of personal data. But regulations and supervision alone will not be enough; developments are so rapid that we will always be lagging behind, the Privacy Coalition asserts.

The Privacy Coalition is calling on the Standing Committee on Digital Affairs of the Dutch House of Representatives to much more actively raise awareness among the citizenry about the importance of digital privacy. Public authorities, but also the business community, could set a good example by only using digital platforms and services that respect privacy. The coalition also advocates greater support for privacy-friendly alternatives to existing apps and platforms, so that people have freedom of choice.

High price

“Digital platforms are becoming more adept at collecting data from users without being transparent about it”, says Haykush Hakobyan of Privacy First, one of the initiators of the Privacy Coalition. “People believe many services are offered for free, but they are unknowingly paying a high price with their personal data. We need to stop that trend now. It is a social responsibility of companies, public authorities and other organizations to actively promote digital privacy. There are plenty of technological possibilities to be active in the digital realm without having your privacy violated.”

Hakobyan called on the House of Representatives to organize a technical briefing with providers of privacy-friendly solutions. “Recently, the House held a hearing with Google and Facebook, among others. It is now time to consult with parties that do respect people’s privacy.” The Privacy Coalition invited the Committee on Digital Affairs to continue the conversation with stakeholders and seek solutions.

“As far as I’m concerned, privacy is non-negotiable”, commented Lisa van Ginneken upon receiving the manifesto. Van Ginneken is a member of the Digital Affairs Committee on behalf of D66. “It is a basic principle that guarantees our freedom and our right not to be spied upon either in physical space or on the Internet. Digital human rights should not be the final element, but rather the starting point of any technological development.”

You can read the current manifesto of the Privacy Coalition and all co-signatories HERE.

Would your company or organization like to support the Privacy Coalition’s call? Then This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.!

https://www.privacycoalitie.org 

Today – European Data Protection Day – the Dutch Privacy Awards were handed out during the National Privacy Conference, a joint initiative by Privacy First and Dutch Platform for the Information Society ECP. The winners of the 2022 Dutch Privacy Awards are:
- Street Art Museum Amsterdam (SAMA)
- Quodari
- Summitto
- Center for Information Security and Privacy Protection (CIP).

The Dutch Privacy Awards provide a platform for companies and government agencies that see Privacy as an opportunity to positively stand out and make privacy-friendly entrepreneurship and innovation the norm. "These Awards have been handed out each year since 2015 and every time the jury nominated special, innovative and inspiring candidates. That’s been no different in 2022. Most of the time, privacy becomes a news item only when things have gone terribly wrong, when hefty fines are issued or certain parties incur serious reputational damage in court. In this respect, it would be a good thing if more attention would go out to ‘the bright side of privacy’ – to solutions that save time and money, strengthen trust, offer insights to people who need it and increase the overall effectiveness of various sorts of applications. The Dutch Privacy Awards are there to put the most inspiring initiatives in the spotlight and give these the recognition they deserve," said Awards jury chairman Wilmar Hendriks.

Nominations  

There are four categories in which applicants are awarded:

1. the category of Consumer solutions (business-to-consumer)

2. the category of Business solutions (within a company or business-to-business)

3. the category of Public services (public authority-to-citizen)

4. The incentive Award for a groundbreaking technology or person.

From the various entries, the independent expert panel chose the following nominees per category (listed in arbitrary order):

1. Scoor voor je Club
2. Summitto
3. Privacy Rating
4. PiM, the Personal identity Manager by KPN
5. Street Art Museum Amsterdam (SAMA) 
6. Quodari
7. Shuttercam. 

During the National Privacy Conference all nominees presented their projects to the digital audience in Award pitches. Thereafter, the Awards were handed out. Click HERE for the entire expert panel report (pdf in Dutch), which includes participation criteria and explanatory notes on all the nominees and winners.

WINNER Consumer solutions: Street Art Museum Amsterdam (SAMA) 

Connecting privacy and art in a project that aims to raise awareness among neighborhood residents is unique and pleasantly surprised the jury. With its Privacy Project, SAMA allows such themes as privacy, digital rights, anonymity on the internet and the impact of technology on society to capture the imagination. More than 80 artists were invited to create a design for a mural, and out of their designs three were chosen to actually be produced on the streets. Local residents were involved in the choice for the design through voting.

Offering critical reflections through their art, artists encouraged residents to think about the issue of privacy. Raising awareness was in fact one of the main goals of this project. For SAMA, the project was a new adventure that saw murals being created in three vulnerable districts in Amsterdam: Nieuw-West, Noord and Zuidoost.

The jury believes that this project shows that graffiti-art murals can help raise awareness among residents about privacy issues. The whole process whereby residents think about both these issues as well as the realization of the murals equally contributes to give meaning to an abstract concept like privacy.

The jury expresses the wish that this project will be replicated in many other cities and especially in vulnerable neighborhoods where residents are still insufficiently aware of what happens to their personal data, and how important it is to be able to make choices about who you share these data with.

WINNER Business solutions: Quodari

Quodari is a privacy-friendly social media platform that puts users in control of their own data and content. It enables users to share collections of data online with friends, but also to make these data public. Taking European values as point of departure, Quodari aims to be a privacy-friendly alternative to existing social media platforms. Quodari’s business model is based on providing true value for users through additional storage space and other features for business or personal use. Quodari does not aim to attract users to its platform for as long as possible, does not exploit personal data and is free of advertising. In this way, privacy risks on the platform are reduced and financial conflicts of interest are avoided. Quodari is a Dutch initiative launched in 2021. The company expects a European rollout as well as the start to a new marketing campaign this year.

In the jury’s opinion, Quodari is a successful attempt to provide an alternative to existing social media platforms, where privacy is paramount and users truly control their own data. With Quodari, users who attach great importance to their privacy have a fair alternative to what Big Tech has to offer. That was the primary reason for the jury to grant Quodari a Dutch Privacy Award.

WINNER Public services: Summitto 

Summitto develops software for tax authorities to combat VAT fraud. Whereas existing solutions collect massive amounts of data that are often stored in plain text in a centralized way, this solution ensures that VAT fraud can be fought without actually storing data. Summitto’s method is based on modern cryptography to optimally protect invoicing. The product is a commercial off-the-shelf product that is open-source and can help tax authorities digitize VAT in a privacy-friendly way. Summitto has received grants from Horizon 2020, the EU program for research and innovation. The company is in close contact with a number of key players which in one way or another deal with VAT, including the European Commission, various government bodies and the International Bureau of Fiscal Documentation (IBFD).

With its original approach, Summitto links the social importance of combating VAT fraud with high privacy values. The approach has drawn a lot of attention from experts throughout Europe. The jury is impressed with the practical applicability of the software in combination with its high privacy standards and has therefore declared Summitto the winner in the public services category.

WINNER Incentive Award: Centrum Informatiebeveiliging en Privacybescherming (CIP) 

This year, the jury chose to present the Incentive Award to the Dutch Center for Information Security and Privacy Protection (CIP).

In spite of the pandemic, CIP has over the past year made a tremendous effort to keep its network updated through digital webinars, podcasts, workshops and games that span a range of topics. The center has built up a remarkable database of videos that are accessible to everyone on YouTube. Privacy is an important topic for CIP: up until now it has made public 22 different sorts of productions on this issue.

CIP is a public-private network organization that operates on the basis of the principle "for all, by all". It is made up of a team of passionate professionals who work together with the members of the network and its partners on practical and usable products in the field of privacy protection, ethics and information security. CIP is also on top of the news and is constantly coming up with new hot topics that are proposed by its participants and partners.

The jury expresses its great appreciation for the achievements of CIP and encourages the center to continue with the important work it is doing. Not least because the results of this work are freely accessible to public authorities, industry, organizations and citizens.

National Privacy Conference

The Dutch National Privacy Conference is a ECP|Platform for the Information Society and Privacy First initiative. Once a year, the conference brings together Dutch industry, public authorities, the academic community and civil society with the aim to build a privacy-friendly information society. The mission of both the National Privacy Conference and Privacy First is to turn the Netherlands into a guiding nation in the field of privacy. To this end, privacy by design is key.

These were the speakers during the 2022 National Privacy Conference in successive order:

Marjolijn Bonthuis (ECP deputy director)
Monique Verdier (Dutch Data Protection Authority vice chairwoman)
Martin Vliem (National Security Officer, Microsoft)
Max Schrems (founder of None of Your Business - NOYB)
Haroon Sheikh (senior scientist, Dutch Advisory Council on Government Policy, WRR)
Gry Hasselbalch (cofounder of European ThinkDoTank DataEthics)
Paul Korremans (Privacy First chairman)
Wilmar Hendriks (chairman of the expert panel of the Dutch Privacy Awards).

Both the conference as well as the Awards session – which were livestreamed from Nieuwspoort in The Hague: https://www.nieuwspoort.nl/stream/privacy-first-ecp/ – were moderated by Dutch television host Tom Jessen.

Expert panel Dutch Privacy Awards

The independent expert Award panel consists of privacy experts from different fields, all of whom participated in their personal capacity:

• Wilmar Hendriks, founder of Control Privacy, chairman of CUIC and Privacy First board member (panel chairman)
• Paul Korremans (Privacy First chairman)
• Melanie Rieback, CEO and cofounder of Radically Open Security
• Nico Mookhoek, legal expert in the field of privacy and founder of DePrivacyGuru
• Rion Rijker, privacy and IT security expert, partner at Fresa Consulting
• Magdalena Magala, privacy officer at the municipality of Zaanstad
• Mathieu Paapst, university lecturer IT law at the University of Groningen and projectlead of cookiedatabase.org
• Jaap van der Wel, IT expert and legal expert in the field of privacy, managing partner at Comfort Information Architects
• Erik Bruinsma, legal expert; director Strategy and management advice, Statistics Netherlands (CBS). 

In order to make sure that the Award process is run objectively, panel members may not judge on any entry from their own organization or an organization in which a panel member has an interest.

In collaboration with the Dutch Platform for the Information Society (ECP), Privacy First organizes the Dutch Privacy Awards with the support of the Democracy & Media Foundation and The Privacy Factory.

Preregistrations for the 2023 Dutch Privacy Awards are welcome!

Would you like to become a sponsor or (media) partner of the Dutch Privacy Awards? Then please get in touch with Privacy First! 

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 together their data. This should help in the fight against all kinds of crime and offenses.

Under the Act, it is not just data that companies and public authorities share with each other. Signals, suspicions and blacklists are also exchanged and linked together. On the basis of this form of shadow record-keeping, these parties can coordinate with each other enforcement ‘interventions’ against citizens who end up in their crosshairs.

Public authorities and companies targeting citizens through data surveillance

In order to enable the large-scale sharing of personal data between public authorities and companies, the Act casts aside numerous confidentiality obligations, privacy rights and legal safeguards that have traditionally applied to the processing of personal data. This leads to a "far-reaching, large-scale erosion of the legal protection of citizens", according to the opposing coalition of which Privacy First is a member: "If this Bill is adopted, the door will be left wide open for the executive branch of the government and private parties to subject both citizens and companies to arbitrary data surveillance."

Through the Act, the Dutch government also wants to create the possibility to start new partnerships in case of ‘urgency’, without providing Parliament the opportunity of examination. The Dutch House of Representatives will be informed about such partnerships only after their establishment, then having to decide whether to pass them into law. This is contrary to the Dutch Constitution, which stipulates that legislation approved by Parliament should include privacy protections. The parties find it unacceptable that Parliament is not involved in the formation of new partnerships and can decide on them only after they have been established.

Legitimizing unlawful practices that have lasted for years

In addition to the possibility of establishing new partnerships, the Act includes four partnerships that have been around for years, but have never been laid down in law. The cabinet now wants to retroactively create a legal basis for these partnerships.

The parties that brought legal proceedings against System Risk Indication (SyRI) point out that SyRI, which was prohibited by the court, was also used for years without a legal basis. According to the parties, there are strong similarities with the partnerships that the new Bill is now intended to legitimize: "Drastic practices in which personal data are processed in violation of the fundamental rights of citizens were set up as a trial and continued for years, only to be given a legal basis as a fait accompli. Fundamental rights that should protect citizens against unjustified government action thereby become mere obstacles for the government to overcome."

Risk assessments, blacklists and suspicions

The coalition previously wrote that the practices under the Act are in many ways similar to the data processing that preceded the childcare benefits scandal that sent shock waves through Dutch society. Based on secret data analyses, lists of citizens who had been falsely labeled by the tax authorities as criminal fraudsters were distributed through various agencies, ruining the personal lives of tens of thousands of families. Under the partnerships that would be made possible by the Act, public authorities and companies would be able to abundantly share risk analyses, blacklists and many other types of data, suspicions and signals about citizens. The Dutch Data Protection Authority advised the Senate in November 2021 not to pass the law, stating that the proposal could lead to "Kafkaesque situations for large numbers of people".

The civil society coalition against SyRI consists of the Dutch Civil Rights Platform (Platform Bescherming Burgerrechten), the Dutch Lawyers Committee for Human Rights (NJCM), Dutch trade union FNV, the Dutch National Clients Council, Privacy First, the KDVP Foundation and authors Maxim Februari and Tommy Wieringa.

Download the recent letter by the coalition to the Dutch Senate HERE (pdf in Dutch).

Source: https://bijvoorbaatverdacht.nl/syri-coalitie-eerste-kamer-moet-datasurveillancewet-super-syri-afwijzen/, 15 February 2022.

A Dutch court has ruled on appeal in the summary proceedings brought by Privacy First concerning the Ultimate Beneficial Owners (UBO) register. Like the preliminary relief court, the Court of Appeal of The Hague unfortunately rejected Privacy First’s claims.

The court in preliminary relief proceedings earlier confirmed that there is every reason to doubt the legal validity of the European money laundering directives that form the basis for the UBO register. The judge ruled that it cannot be precluded that the highest European court, the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU), will conclude that the public nature of the UBO register is not in line with the principle of proportionality. The ruling of the CJEU is expected in mid-2022.

Existing legal entities in the Netherlands do not have to register their UBOs until 27 March 2022. This is different for new legal entities: these have to register their UBOs immediately. The Court of Appeal of The Hague deems it unlikely that these UBOs will suffer serious damage in the short term and points out that UBOs fearing to be at risk from the disclosure of personal data can immediately shield these data from the general public. Dutch law provides for this possibility. The Hague Court of Appeal called this ‘a simple way to prevent UBO data from becoming or remaining public’. UBOs can apply to the Trade Register for shielding. As long as such applications are pending, UBO data will actually be protected. Now that the Court of Appeal has so emphatically pointed out this possibility, it is expected that many UBOs will follow this route.

‘The solution must come from the highest European court, the Court of Justice of the EU’, comments Privacy First’s attorney, Otto Volgenant of Boekx Attorneys. ‘It will rule on this in mid-2022. I expect that the Court will mark the end of the open nature of the UBO register. Thus far hardly any data have been entered into the register and I advise everyone to just wait as long as possible. The Dutch government has arbitrarily chosen a date by which UBOs must provide their data, namely 27 March 2022. It would be wise to postpone that end date by a few months until after the CJEU has provided clarity. That would prevent a lot of trouble and unnecessary costs.’

The judgment (in Dutch) of the district court in preliminary relief proceedings can be found here:
http://deeplink.rechtspraak.nl/uitspraak?id=ECLI:NL:RBDHA:2021:2457  
while the judgment (in Dutch) of the Court of Appeal can be found here:
http://deeplink.rechtspraak.nl/uitspraak?id=ECLI:NL:GHDHA:2021:2176. 

Update 14 April 2022: further legal action by Privacy First against the UBO register may follow in mid-2022, depending on the outcome of similar Luxembourg lawsuits at the EU Court. Recently, Dutch Parliament passed a motion that until the ruling of the EU Court no fines should be imposed on organizations that have not yet registered their UBOs. It also seems that the UBO registration obligation of foundations and associations will not be enforced for the time being. Privacy First closely follows these developments and tries to have a positive influence on them as much as possible.

The hearing at the court of appeal in The Hague in the proceedings of Privacy First against the register for Ultimate Beneficial Owners (UBO) is scheduled for Monday, 27 September 2021.

Following the very critical advice of the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS), the district court of The Hague confirmed on 18 March 2021 that there is every reason to doubt the validity of the European money laundering directives that form the basis for the UBO register. The judge ruled that it cannot be excluded that the highest European court, the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU), will conclude that the public nature of the UBO register is not in line with the principle of proportionality. Since a Luxembourg local court has already refered questions about this to the CJEU, the Dutch court in summary proceedings did not find it necessary to ask questions about it as well. Privacy First has appealed the judgment in these summary proceedings, taking the case to the court of appeal of The Hague. Our appeal summons can be found here (pdf in Dutch).

Privacy First requests the court of appeal to ask preliminary questions on the UBO register to the European Court of Justice and calls for the suspension of the operation of the UBO register until these questions have been answered. Privacy First also asks the court to temporarily suspend the public accessibility of the UBO register, at least until the CJEU has ruled on this matter. The court of appeal's ruling is expected a few weeks after the hearing on 27 September 2021.

‘‘The UBO register will put privacy-sensitive data of millions of people up for grabs’’, Privacy First’s attorney Otto Volgenant of Boekx Attorneys comments. ‘‘There are doubts from all sides whether this is an effective tool in the fight against money laundering and terrorism financing. It’s like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. The Court of Justice of the EU will ultimately rule on this. I expect that it will annul the UBO register – at least its public accessibility. Until then, I advise UBOs not to submit any data to the UBO register. Once data have been made public, they cannot be retrieved.’’

Background of the lawsuit against the UBO register

Privacy First is bringing a lawsuit against the Dutch government regarding the UBO Register which was introduced in 2020. In summary proceedings, the invalidity of the EU regulations on which the UBO register is based are being invoked. The consequences of this new legislation are far-reaching. After all, it concerns very privacy-sensitive information. Data about the financial situation of natural persons will be out in the open. More than 1.5 million legal entities in the Netherlands that are listed in the Dutch Trade Register will have to disclose information about their ultimate beneficial owners. The UBO register is accessible to everyone, for €2.50 per retrieval. This level of public accessibility is not proportionate.

On 24 June 2020, the Dutch ‘Implementation Act on Registration of Ultimate Beneficial Owners of Companies and Other Legal Entities’ entered into force. Based on this new Act, a new UBO register linked to the Trade Register of the Netherlands Chamber of Commerce will contain information on all ultimate beneficial owners of companies and other legal entities incorporated in the Netherlands. This information must indicate the interest of the UBO, i.e. 25-50%, 50-75% or more than 75%. In any case, the UBO’s name, month and year of birth as well as nationality will be publicly available for everyone to consult, with all the privacy risks this entails.

Since 27 September 2020, newly established entities must register their UBO in the UBO Register. Existing legal entities have until March 27 2022 to register their UBOs. The law gives only very limited options for shielding information. This is only possible for persons secured by the police, for minors and for those under guardianship. The result will be that the interests of almost all UBOs will become public knowledge.

European Anti-Money Laundering Directive

This new law stems from the Fifth European Anti-Money Laundering Directive, which requires EU Member States to register and disclose to the public the personal data of UBOs. The aim of this is to combat money laundering and terrorist financing. According to the European legislator, the registration and subsequent disclosure of personal data of UBOs, including the interest that the UBO has in a company, contributes to that objective. The public nature of the register would have a deterrent effect on persons wishing to launder money or finance terrorism. But the effectiveness of a UBO register in the fight against money laundering and terrorism has never been substantiated.

Massive privacy violation and fundamental criticism

The question is whether the means does not defeat the purpose. Registering the personal data of all UBOs and making it accessible to everyone is a blanket measure of a preventive nature. 99.99% of all UBOs have nothing to do with money laundering or terrorist financing. If it was in fact proportionate to collect information on UBOs, it should be sufficient if that information is available to those government agencies involved in combating money laundering and terrorism. Making the information completely public is going too far. The European Data Protection Supervisor already ruled that this privacy violation is not proportionate. But this opinion has not led to an amendment of the European directive.

Leading up to the the debate on this law in the Dutch House of Representatives, fundamental criticism came from various quarters. The business community agitated because it feared – and now experiences – an increase in burdens and perceives privacy risks. UBOs of family-owned companies that have remained out of the public eye up until now are running major privacy and security risks. There was also a great deal of attention for the position of parties that attach great importance to the protection of data subjects, such as church communities and social organizations. As for associations and foundations that do not have owners, things are cumbersome: they have to put the data that is already in the Trade Register in another register. Unfortunately, this has not led to any changes in the regulations.

Dutch investigative journalism platform Follow the Money looked into the social costs of the Dutch UBO register. Follow the Money writes: ‘‘The UBO register entails costs, hassle and sometimes slightly absurd bureaucracy for millions of entrepreneurs and directors. The Ministry of Finance reckons the total costs of the register for the business community is 99 million Euros. Another 9 million Euros must be added for one-time implementation costs. When lawyer Volgenant hears about this amount, he reacts with dismay: 'The total costs are much higher than I thought! If you extrapolate that to the whole EU, the costs are astronomical.’’’

Favourable outcome of lawsuit is likely

Privacy First has initiated a lawsuit against the UBO register for violation of the fundamental right to privacy and the protection of personal data. Privacy First requests the Dutch judiciary to render the UBO register inoperative in the short term and to submit preliminary questions on this subject to the Court of Justice of the European Union. It would not be the first time privacy-violating regulations are repealed by the courts, something that previous Privacy First lawsuits attest to.

The Dutch law and also the underlying European directive are in conflict with the European Charter of Fundamental Rights as well as the General Data Protection Regulation. The legislator has created these regulations, but it is up to the courts to conduct a thorough review of them. Ultimately the judge will have the final say. If the (European) legislator does not pay enough attention to the protection of fundamental rights, then the (European) judge can cast the regulations aside. The Court of Justice of the European Union has previously declared regulations invalid due to privacy violations, for example the Telecom Data Protection Directive and the Privacy Shield. The Dutch courts also regularly invalidate privacy-invading regulations. Privacy First has previously successfully challenged the validity of legislation, for example in the proceedings about the Telecommunications Data Retention Act and in the proceedings against SyRI. Viewed against this background, the lawsuit against the UBO register is considered very promising.

Update 27 September 2021: this afternoon the court session took place in The Hague; click HERE for the pleading of our lawyer (pdf in Dutch). The judgment of the court of appeal is scheduled for 16 November 2021.

Do you have any questions? Please contact us or our attorney Otto Volgenant of Boekx Attorneys. Privacy First can use your help and would appreciate it if you would become a donor.

Summary proceedings against massive privacy violation by Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) camera surveillance

Challenging large-scale privacy violations in court has long been Privacy First’s established practice. In recent years, Privacy First has successfully done so against the central storage in the Netherlands of everyone’s fingerprints under the Dutch Passport Act, against the storage of everyone’s communications data under the Dutch Telecommunications Data Retention Act and – in coalition with other parties – against large-scale risk profiling of innocent citizens through the Dutch System Risk Indication (SyRI).

A current and urgent issue that equally merits going to court over, concerns the Dutch legislation on Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) which applies since 2019 under Art. 126jj of the Dutch Code of Penal Procedure. Under this piece of law, the number plate codes of millions of cars in the Netherlands (i.e. everyone’s travel movements) are stored continuously for four weeks in a central police database for criminal investigation purposes, regardless of whether one is suspected of anything. This is totally unnecessary, completely disproportionate and also ineffective, as was revealed in evaluation reports published today by the Dutch Research and Documentation Center (‘WODC’, part of the Dutch Ministry of Justice and Security). Supervision is lacking and the system can easily be abused, newspaper NRC Handelsblad recently confirmed in its reporting.

Privacy First has therefore prepared a lawsuit to have the ANPR legislation repealed on account of violation of European privacy law. Summary proceedings against the Dutch government will take place at the district court of The Hague on 10 November 2021. Through Pro Bono Connect, Privacy First has engaged CMS as the law firm that will take care of the litigation in this case. Our summons in summary proceedings can be found HERE (pdf in Dutch). If necessary, these preliminary proceedings will be followed by broader proceedings on the merits. After all, there is no doubt that the current ANPR law constitutes a massive privacy violation and simply does not belong in a free democratic society. Considering the relevant European case law, Privacy First deems the likelihood of successful legal action very high.

Case details: Privacy First vs. the State (Dutch Ministry of Justice and Security), Wednesday 10 November 2021 11.00 am, The Hague district court. You are welcome to attend the court hearing. A route description in Dutch can be found here. 

Update November 8, 2021: due to Corona restrictions, it appears that the court is only willing to allow two (already registered) visitors at the court hearing. However, due to high public interest, there will be a livestream: https://www.rechtspraak.nl/Organisatie-en-contact/Organisatie/Rechtbanken/Rechtbank-Den-Haag/Nieuws/Paginas/Livestream-rechtszaak-stichting-Privacy-First-tegen-de-Staat.aspx.

Update November 10, 2021: the court hearing took place today; click HERE for our lawyer's pleading (pdf in Dutch). The court's ruling is scheduled for December 1st.

Update December 1, 2021: today the district court of The Hague rendered its judgment. In the judgment, the court first of all established that Privacy First is admissible in this case as a non-profit interest group for the protection of the privacy of all citizens in the Netherlands. This again establishes that Privacy First can conduct these and subsequent legal proceedings in the public interest. Subsequently, however, the court ruled that in these preliminary relief proceedings there was no sufficiently urgent interest. Privacy First finds this judgment incomprehensible, since in the case of a daily massive privacy violation by definition there is an urgent interest to have that violation legally reviewed and to have it stopped. Privacy First will now commence proceedings on the merits against the ANPR legislation and is also considering lodging an urgent appeal against the current judgment with the Court of Appeal of The Hague. In view of relevant European case law, Privacy First still considers the chances of successful legal action exceptionally high.

The ANPR legislation at issue in Privacy First's lawsuit relates to the mass collection and storage of everyone's "historical" ANPR data, also known as "no hits". This should be distinguished from the many years of police practice where license plates of suspects (so-called "hits") can be used for criminal investigations. Dutch media are regularly confused about this as a result of misleading government information, for example on the websites of the Dutch National Police and the Public Prosecution Service. Privacy First regrets such deception and hopes that the media will not be misled by this.

Would you like to support these legal proceedings? Then please consider becoming a donor! Privacy First consists largely of volunteers and is entirely dependent on sponsorship and donations to pursue litigation.

The controversial and compulsory inclusion of fingerprints in passports has been in place in the EU since 2009. From that year on, fingerprints were also included in Dutch identity cards, even though under EU law there was no such obligation. While the inclusion of fingerprints in identity cards in the Netherlands was reversed in January 2014 due to privacy concerns, there is now new European legislation that will make the inclusion of fingerprints in identity cards compulsory as of August 2, 2021.

Dutch citizens can apply for a new identity card without fingerprints until August 2. After that, only people can do so who are ‘temporarily or permanently unable physically to have fingerprints taken’.

The Dutch Senate is expected to debate and vote on the amendment of the Dutch Passport Act in connection with the reintroduction of fingerprints in Dutch identity cards on July 13. In that context, Privacy First sent the following email to the Dutch Senate yesterday:

Dear Members of Parliament,

Since Privacy First was founded in 2008, we have opposed the mandatory collection of fingerprints for passports and identity cards. Since the introduction of the new Passport Act in 2009, Privacy First has done so through lawsuits, campaigns, freedom of information requests, political lobbying and by activating the media. Despite the subsequent Dutch discontinuation of the (planned) central storage of fingerprints in both national and municipal databases in 2011, everyone’s fingerprints are still taken when applying for a passport, and soon (as a result of the new European Regulation on ID cards) again for Dutch ID cards after this was retracted in 2014.

To date, however, the millions of fingerprints taken from virtually the entire adult population in the Netherlands have hardly been used in practice, as the biometric technology had already proven to be unsound and unworkable in 2009. The compulsory collection of everyone’s fingerprints under the Dutch Passport Act therefore still constitutes the most massive and longest-lasting privacy violation that the Netherlands has ever known.

Having read the current report of the Senate on the amendment of the Passport Act to reintroduce fingerprints in ID cards, Privacy First hereby draws your attention to the following concerns. In this context, we ask you to vote against the amendment of the law, in contravention of European policy. After all:

1. As early as May 2016, the Dutch Council of State (Raad van State) ruled that fingerprints in Dutch identity cards violated the right to privacy due to a lack of necessity and proportionality, see https://www.raadvanstate.nl/pers/persberichten/tekst-persbericht.html?id=956 (in Dutch).
2. Freedom of information requests from Privacy First have revealed that the phenomenon to be tackled (look-alike fraud with passports and identity cards) is so small in scale that the compulsory collection of everyone’s fingerprints is completely disproportionate and therefore unlawful. See: https://www.privacyfirst.nl/rechtszaken-1/wob-procedures/item/524-onthullende-cijfers-over-look-alike-fraude-met-nederlandse-reisdocumenten.html.
3. In recent years, fingerprints in passports and identity cards have had a biometric error rate as high as 30%, see https://zoek.officielebekendmakingen.nl/kst-32317-163.html (Dutch State Secretary Teeven, January 31, 2013). Before that, Minister Donner (Security & Justice) admitted an error rate of 21-25%: see https://zoek.officielebekendmakingen.nl/kst-25764-47.html (April 27, 2011). How high are these error rates today?
4. Partly because of the high error rates mentioned above, fingerprints in passports and ID cards are virtually not used to date, either domestically, at borders or at airports.
5. Because of these high error percentages, former Dutch State Secretary Bijleveld (Interior and Kingdom Relations) instructed all Dutch municipalities as early as September 2009 to (in principle) refrain from conducting biometric fingerprint verifications when issuing passports and identity cards. After all, in the event of a ‘mismatch’, the ID document concerned would have to be returned to the passport manufacturer, which would lead to rapid societal disruption if the numbers were high. In this respect, the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations was also concerned about large-scale unrest and even possible violence at municipal counters. These concerns and the instruction of State Secretary Bijleveld still apply today.
6. Since 2016, several individual Dutch lawsuits are still pending at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, challenging the mandatory issuing of fingerprints for passports and ID cards on the grounds of violation of Art. 8 ECHR (right to privacy).
7. In any case, an exception should be negotiated for people who, for whatever reason, do not wish to give their fingerprints (biometric conscientious objectors, Art. 9 ECHR).
8. Partly for the above reasons, fingerprints have not been taken for the Dutch identity card since January 2014. It is up to your Chamber to maintain this status quo and also to push for the abolition of fingerprints for passports.

For background information, see the report ‘Happy Landings' by the Scientific Council for Government Policy (WRR) that Privacy First director Vincent Böhre wrote in 2010. Partly as a result of this critical report (and the large-scale lawsuit brought by Privacy First et al. against the Passport Act), the decentralized (municipal) storage of fingerprints was largely abolished in 2011 and the planned central storage of fingerprints was halted.

For further information or questions regarding the above, Privacy First can be reached at any time.

Yours sincerely,

The Privacy First Foundation

As an NGO that promotes civil rights and privacy protection, Privacy First has been concerned with financial privacy for years. Since 2017, we have been keeping close track of the developments surrounding the second European Payment Services Directive (PSD2), pointing out the dangers to the privacy of consumers. In particular, we focus on privacy issues related to ‘account information service providers’ (AISPs) and on the dangerous possibilities offered by PSD2 to process personal data in more extensive ways.

At the end of 2017, we assumed that providing more adequate information and more transparency to consumers would be sufficient to mitigate the risks associated with PSD2. However, these risks turned out to be greater and of a more fundamental nature. We therefore decided to launch a bilingual (Dutch & English) website called PSD2meniet.nl in order to outline both our concerns and our solutions with regard to PSD2.

Central to our project is the Don’t-PSD2-Me-Register, an idea we launched on 7 January 2019 in the Dutch television program Radar and in this press release. The aim of the Don’t-PSD2-Me-Register is to provide a real tool to consumers with which they can filter out and thus protect their personal data. In time, more options to filter out and restrict the use of data should become available. With this project, Privacy First aims to contribute to positive improvements to PSD2 and its implementation.

Protection of special personal data

In this project, which is supported by the SIDN Fund, Privacy First has focused particularly on ‘special personal data’, such as those generated through payments made to trade unions, political parties, religious organizations, LGBT advocacy groups or medical service providers. Payments made to the Dutch Central Judicial Collection Agency equally reveal parts of people’s lives that require extra protection. These special personal data directly touch upon the issue of fundamental human rights. When consumers use AISPs under PSD2, their data can be shared more widely among third parties. PSD2 indirectly allows data that are currently protected, to become widely known, for example by being included in consumer profiles or black lists.

The best form of protection is to prevent special personal data from getting processed in the first place. That is why we have built the Don’t-PSD2-Me-Register, with an Application Programming Interface (API) – essentially a privacy filter – wrapped around it. With this filter, AISPs can detect and filter out account numbers and thus prevent special personal data from being unnecessarily processed or provided to third parties. Moreover, the register informs consumers and gives them a genuine choice as to whether or not they wish to share their data.

What’s next?

We have outlined many of the results we have achieved in a Whitepaper, which has been sent to stakeholders such as the European Commission, the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) and the Dutch Data Protection Authority. And of course, to as many AISPs as possible, because if they decide to adopt the measures we propose, they would be protecting privacy by design. Our Whitepaper contains a number of examples and good practices on how to enhance privacy protection. Among other things, it lays out how to improve the transparency of account information services. We hope that AISPs will take the recommendations in our Whitepaper to heart.

Our Application Programming Interface (API) has already been adopted by a service provider called Gatekeeper for Open Banking. We support this start up’s continued development, and we make suggestions on how the privacy filter can be best incorporated into their design and services. When AISPs use Gatekeeper, consumers get the control over their data that they deserve.

Knowing that the European Commission will not be evaluating PSD2 until 2022, we are glad to have been able to convey our own thoughts through our Whitepaper. Along with the API we have developed and distributed, it is an important tool for any AISP that takes the privacy of its consumers seriously.

Privacy First will continue to monitor all developments related to the second Payment Services Directive. Our website PSD2meniet.nl will remain up and running and will continue to be the must-visit platform for any updates on this topic.

If you want to know how things develop, or in case you have any suggestions, please send an email to Martijn van der Veen: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Today – on European Data Protection Day – the 2021 Dutch Privacy Awards were handed out during the Dutch National Privacy Conference, a joint initiative by Privacy First and the Dutch Platform for the Information Society (ECP). These Awards provide a platform for companies and governments that see privacy as an opportunity to distinguish themselves positively and to make privacy-friendly entrepreneurship and innovation the norm. The winners of the Dutch Privacy Awards 2021 are STER, NLdigital, Schluss, FCInet and the Dutch Ministry of Justice and Security.

Consumer solutions

Winner: STER

Advertising without storage of personal data, contextual targeting: proven effectiveness

The Dutch Stichting Ether Reclame (Ether Advertising Foundation), better known as STER, was one of the first organizations in the Netherlands to abandon the common model of offering advertisements based on information collected via cookies. STER has developed a procedure that only uses relevant information on the webpages visited. No personal data are collected at all (data such as browser version, IP address and click-through behaviour). Advertisers submit their advertisements to STER, which are then put on the website in conformity with the protocol developed by STER, which is based on a number of simple categories. These categories are linked to the information that is shown, such as a TV program that someone has selected. The protocol has been built up and refined over the past period and now works properly.

In this way, STER kills several birds with one stone. Most importantly, initial applications show that this approach is at least as effective for advertisers as the old cookie-based way. Secondly, the approach removes parties from the chain. Data brokers who played a role in the old system are now superfluous. Apart from the financial gain for the chain, this also prevents data coming into the possession of parties the data should not end up with. And thirdly, STER stays in control of its own advertising campaigns.

This makes STER a deserved winner of the Dutch Privacy Awards. The concept developed is innovative and helps to protect the privacy of citizens without them having to make any effort. STER is also investigating the possibility of using the approach more broadly. This too is an innovation that the expert panel applauds.

In that sense STER’s approach is also a well-founded response to the data-driven superpowers on the market as it demonstrates that the endless collection of personal data is not at all necessary to get your message across, whether it is commercial or idealistic.

STER could perhaps also have been submitted as a Business-to-Business entry, but the direct interests of consumers meant that it was listed in the category of consumer solutions.

Business solutions

Winner: NLdigital

Organisational innovation and practical application: Data Pro Code

Entries for the Dutch Privacy Awards often relate to technical innovations. At NLdigital it is not the technology, but the approach that is innovative. It has given concrete meaning to GDPR obligations through agreements and focuses mainly on data processors, not on the responsible parties. This enables processors to make agreements more quickly, practically and with sufficient care – agreements which are also verifiable in this regard. Many companies provide services by making applications available which involve data processing. And that requires processing agreements, which are not easy to apply for every organization. Filling in the corresponding statement leads to an appropriate processing agreement for clients.

NLdigital’s code of conduct called Data Pro Code is a practical instrument tailor made for the target group: IT companies that process data on behalf of others. With the help of (600) participants/members, the Code is drawn up as an elaboration of Art. 28 of the GDPR. It has been approved by the Dutch Data Protection Authority and has led to a publicly accessible certification.

Public services

Winner: FCInet & Ministery of Justice and Security

Ma³tch, privacy on the government agenda: innovative data minimization

FCInet is innovative, privacy-enhancing technology that was developed by the Dutch Ministry of Justice and Security and the Dutch Ministry of Finance. It is meant to assist in the fight against (international) crime. Part of FCInet is Ma³tch, which stands for Autonous Anonymous Analysis. With this feature the Financial Criminal Investigation Services (FCIS) can share secure and pseudonymized datasets on a national level (for example with the Financial Intelligence Unit-Netherlands and the Fiscal Information and Investigation Service), but also internationally. Ma³tch is a technology that supports and enforces parties concerned to make careful considerations per data field. This is possible with regard to the question of which data these parties want to compare and on the basis of which conditions. This ensures that parties can set up the infrastructure in such a way that it can be technically enforced that data are exchanged only on a legitimate basis.

Through hashing, organization A encrypts (bundles of) personal data in such a way that receiving party B has the possibility to check whether a person known to organization B is also known to organization A. Only if it turns out that there is a match (because the list of known persons in hashed form of organization B is checked against the list of persons in the sent list) does the next step take place whereby organization B actually requests information about the person concerned from organization A. The check takes place in a secure decentralized environment, so organization A does not know whether there is a hit or not. The technology thus prevents the unnecessary perusal of personal data in the context of comparisons.

The open source code technology of FCInet offers broader possibilities for application, which is encouraged by the expert panel and was an important reason for the submission: it can be reused in many other organizations and systems. The panel therefore assessed this initiative as a good investment in privacy by the government, where, clearly, the issue of privacy really is on the agenda.

Incentive Award

Winner: Schluss

Schluss applied for the Dutch Privacy Awards in 2021 for the third time. That is not the reason for the Incentive Award, even though it may encourage others to persevere in a similar way.

The reason is that it is a very nice initiative, focused on the self-management of personal data. In the form of an app, private users are offered a vault for their personal data, whether they are of a medical, financial or other nature. Users decide which people or organizations gets access to their data. The idea is that others who are allowed to see the data no longer need to store these data themselves. Schluss has no insight into who uses the app, its role is only to facilitate the process. The technology, which is open source, guarantees transparency about the operation of the app.

Schluss won the prestigious Incentive Award because thus far the app has had only a beta release. However, promising projects have been started with the Volksbank and there is a pilot in collaboration with the Royal Dutch Association of Civil-law Notaries. With the mission statement (‘With Schluss, only you decide who gets to know which of your details’) in mind, Schluss chose to become a cooperation, an organizational form that appealed to the expert panel. With this national Incentive Award the panel hopes to encourage the initiators to continue along this path and to persuade parties to join forces with Schluss.

Nominations  

There are four categories in which applicants are awarded:

1. the category of Consumer solutions (business-to-consumer)

2. the category of Business solutions (within a company or business-to-business)

3. the category of Public services (public authority-to-citizen)

4. the incentive award for a ground breaking technology or person.

From the various entries, the independent expert panel chose the following nominees per category (listed in arbitrary order):

During the National Privacy Conference all nominees presented their projects to the audience in Award pitches. Thereafter, the Awards were handed out. Click HERE for the entire expert panel report (pdf in Dutch), which includes participation criteria and explanatory notes on all the nominees and winners.

National Privacy Conference

The Dutch National Privacy Conference is a ECP|Platform for the Information Society and Privacy First initiative. Once a year, the conference brings together Dutch industry, public authorities, the academic community and civil society with the aim to build a privacy-friendly information society. The mission of both the National Privacy Conference and Privacy First is to turn the Netherlands into a guiding nation in the field of privacy. To this end, privacy by design is key.

These were the speakers during the 2021 National Privacy Conference in successive order:
- Monique Verdier (vice chairwoman of the Dutch Data Protection Authority)
- Judith van Schie (Considerati)
- Erik Gerritsen (Secretary General of the Dutch Ministery of Health, Welfare and Sport) 
- Mieke van Heesewijk (SIDN Fund) 
- Peter Verkoulen (Dutch Blockchain Coalition)
- Paul Tang (MEP for PvdA)
- Ancilla van de Leest (Privacy First chairwoman)
- Chris van Dam (Member of the Dutch House of Representatives for CDA)
- Evelyn Austin (director of Bits of Freedom)
- Wilmar Hendriks (chairman of the expert panel of the Dutch Privacy Awards).

The entire conference was livestreamed from Nieuwspoort in The Hague: see https://www.nieuwspoort.nl/agenda/overzicht/privacy-conferentie-2021/stream and https://youtu.be/asEX1jy4Tv0.

Dutch Privacy Awards expert panel

The independent expert Award panel consists of privacy experts from different fields:

• Wilmar Hendriks, founder of Control Privacy and member of the Privacy First advisory board (panel chairman)
• Ancilla van de Leest, Privacy First chairwoman
• Paul Korremans, partner at Comfort Information Architects and Privacy First board member
• Marc van Lieshout, managing director at iHub, Radboud University Nijmegen
• Alex Commandeur, senior advisor BMC Advies
• Melanie Rieback, CEO and co-founder of Radically Open Security
• Nico Mookhoek, privacy lawyer and founder of DePrivacyGuru
• Rion Rijker, privacy and data protection expert, IT lawyer and partner at Fresa Consulting.

In order to make sure that the Award process is run objectively, the panel members may not judge on any entry of his or her own organization.

In collaboration with the Dutch Platform for the Information Society (ECP), Privacy First organizes the Dutch Privacy Awards with the support of the Democracy & Media Foundation and The Privacy Factory.

Pre-registrations for the 2022 Dutch Privacy Awards are welcome!

Would you like to become a sponsor of the Dutch Privacy Awards? Please contact Privacy First!