Dagblad de Limburger, 28 August 2015: 'Privacy at parking Weert assured'

“Parking combined with license plate registration is a sensitive combination due to privacy concerns. Yet more and more municipalities are adopting it.

Earlier this year, the Amsterdam municipality backed down in court.

That ruled that entering a license plate in a parking meter cannot be made mandatory, as long as the motorist can prove that he bought a parking ticket. And a new court case with Amsterdam is imminent, the Privacy First Foundation announced. Namely, the municipality should make it possible to pay parking fees not only with a debit card, but also with cash, Privacy First believes. Both privacy and anonymity should be guaranteed when parking.

It is sensitive. With the introduction of Plusparking in Weert, the local SP is also concerned about privacy. After all, anyone paying in Weert with the Weerterlandpas or via mobile phone and a provider will be monitored via their license plate number. There is quite a bit of criticism about this, the SP knows. Criticism about the storage of the data and its possible unauthorised linking to other databases.

The SP therefore wants a guarantee from the Weert municipal executive that the data will not be linked and that it will not be used to trace anyone's movements.

To ensure anonymity, it should also be possible to pay with cash everywhere. Because if you pay with a bank or giro card, your movements can also be tracked, says Privacy First's Vincent Böhre. So there should always be a possibility to pay with cash. And that possibility is everywhere, said a Weert municipality spokeswoman. So anonymity is guaranteed. License plate data will only be used to control paid parking and anonymously for statistical information, such as measuring parking pressure. (...)"

Source: Dagblad de Limburger, 28 August 2015, p. 1.