Dichtbij.nl, 2 Jan 2014: 'Company scans Zaanse license plates'

“Debtscan scans vehicles throughout the Netherlands. Every week a new region is scanned. Co-writer Leendert Moerland wonders if this is just allowed.

"Last December 30, I saw a car from Debtscan driving on Wibautstraat and its surroundings in Zaandam. This car drove through all the streets, scanning all the license plates of vehicles that were parked. Can everyone just start scanning license plates and retrieve and store the address information associated with the license plate? It seems to me that Debt-scan is violating the privacy of thousands of Zaandam residents by taking random pictures of number plates of parked cars."

Public road
On Debtscan's website, the company states that they only have access to locations of vehicles that they explicitly search on behalf of the bailiff and for which judgement has been given. Of all unsought vehicles, they state they have neither the location (address) nor the owner of that vehicle, nor any other data.

As recently as August 2013, the Telegraph and Webwereld wrote about Debtscan's operations. According to experts, this was not allowed at all.

Privacy watchdog Privacy First revealed to the Telegraph expressed doubts that the company would not keep the photos of number plates. Privacy specialist and lawyer Christiaan Alberdingk Thijm indicated that scanning cars and processing personal data would violate the Personal Data Protection Act.

Webwereld revealed in late August that Debtscan had not notified the data processing to the Dutch Data Protection Authority (CBP). They reportedly did not register until 20 August.

CBP
Nearby contacted CBP following this write-in article. A spokesperson reveals that he cannot say anything at the moment. "I can say that the matter has our attention," the spokesperson said.(...)"

Source: http://www.dichtbij.nl/zaanstreek/regionaal-nieuws/artikel/3304056/bedrijf-scant-zaanse-kentekens-update.aspx, 2 January 2014.