FOK! News, Dec 29, 2011, 'Foundation denounces loss of privacy'

"Over the past decade, the government, with 'unprecedented control frenzy', has eliminated many of the fundamental achievements of the democratic rule of law. Of all human rights, the right to privacy is under the most pressure. So says Privacy First Foundation chairman Bas Filippini in his Christmas and New Year column.

The laws were legitimised with slogans like 'security before privacy' and 'if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear'. The government, responsible for protecting privacy, has degenerated into the biggest privacy violator ever, said the chairman of the independent foundation for preserving and promoting the right to privacy and personal freedom.

According to Filippini, every possible incident is used to create fear of "mostly fictitious problems". As examples, he cites spy boxes and alcohol locks in cars, automatic number plate recognition and cameras at all border crossings. "To know everything about you and control in real time where you are, with whom, how fast you drive and what fines you get."
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Mobile scanning devices for fingerprints and DNA are also a thorn in Filippini's side. "What the point of this is and what it has achieved in recent years is totally unclear, what it costs in terms of money and surrendering personal freedom all the more."

The 'camera terror' is completely bad. "The government is completely camera-addicted instead of being truly in touch with its own citizens. Metro stations, trains, buses, trams, all city centres, police helmets and even parking meters in Amsterdam are unrelentingly equipped with cameras." According to Filippini, it is now long gone from registration to "real-time identification, without any respect for the citizen's fundamental right of anonymity and its guarantee by the government".

The OV chip card, the Electronic Patient Record, Diagnosis Treatment Combinations and the new passport have shown that the interests of ICT companies and the government are intertwined, continues the unleashed Filippini. Administrators take absolutely no responsibility and 'that their own children will soon also be completely trapped in their self-built electronic concentration camp' they just forget for a moment for their year-end bonus'.

Research by Privacy Barometer shows that scrapping all Dutch anti-privacy measures of recent years would save billions of euros, Filippini recalls. Privacy First exists for three years and its objective is 'own choices in a free environment'."

Read HERE the entire post at FOK! News.