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Privacy First is an independent foundation aiming to preserve and promote the right to privacy.
Privacy First strives for a free society where every person can make their own autonomous choices. Free from unnecessary control. Free from outside influence.
Privacy is a fundamental right and a fundamental building block of our democratic rule of law. It allows us to set our own limits on who we allow, at what time, into our lives. It provides us with a physically, socially and emotionally safe space that helps us define who we are and how we stand in the world.
Your private life is a collection of big and very small things. Do you have a secret love, or debts? What things do you like or dislike about yourself? What is the colour of your toothbrush? How many biscuits do you eat in a day? These things are nobody's business and are private. But the ability to set your own boundaries in them is under pressure.
Digitisation, data collection, algorithms and artificial intelligence (AI) make it technically possible to profile us, make predictions about our behaviour, measure that behaviour in turn and increase predictability. These developments are happening at a historically unprecedented pace.
This massive collection of data makes us susceptible to outside influence and control. As citizens, we are denied visibility into who has access to our private lives and what happens to that information.
Privacy First wants a fundamental rethinking of the meaning, impact and value of privacy protection. Citizens should control the government and not the other way around. The international capitalisation of our privacy and corporate surveillance must end. We want a society where people actually have the freedom to decide with whom they share their private lives, and with whom they do not.
For our work we highly depend on a wide network of professionals. Send us your CV to join us as voluenteer.
Organisation
Vincent Böhre studied international law out of idealism, specialised in human rights and was active in that field for several organisations. He has been Privacy First's director and lawyer since 2011 and focuses mainly on our litigation, political lobbying, research and spokesmanship.
Marc Smits creates, designs and makes. He is an activist and passionate advocate of a free democratic rule of law. In terms of content, he is an expert on privacy in healthcare and medical confidentiality.
Daniel de Jongh had been involved with Privacy First as a volunteer since 2013. He is now researching the Internet of Things and 'connected cars' as a part-time staff member.
Board
Privacy First's board sets general policies and meets at least once a month. Privacy First board members receive no remuneration for their board work.
Sander is a professor at the University of Amsterdam and a partner at KPMG. From both roles, he focuses on responsible use of data, with risk management being his main focus. Sander developed his love for data in high-energy physics; he holds a PhD and worked for a long time at CERN and Nikhef.
With her legal and consultancy background and experience, Haykush is committed from Privacy First to a more privacy-conscious Netherlands where privacy protection is leading in all innovations and governance decisions. Haykush is experienced in data protection combined with health law and special administrative law.
Wilmar Hendriks is an experienced privacy professional (>20 years). In government, social domain, as FG, administrator, entrepreneur and strategic advisor. Wilmar fights with genuine conviction for the freedom that the fundamental right to privacy protects.
Steven is an IT lawyer at Law & Robots. With a background in both game development and law, he bridges the technical and legal worlds. He is also heavily involved in the legal aspects of new technologies, web scraping and artificial intelligence in particular.
Advisory board
The Advisory Board provides solicited and unsolicited advice to the Board of Privacy First on all relevant matters, including the achievement of Privacy First's objectives, strategy and policies. The members of the Advisory Board perform their duties unpaid.
Annual reports
Every year, Privacy First publishes its main activities and figures in an annual report. In it, we often also look ahead to the topics and activities we expect for the coming year.
ANBI Documentation
Privacy First Foundation is an Institution for General Benefit (ANBI). Below you will find all relevant documents for our ANBI status:
