Various regional dailies, 22 Aug 2013: 'No one stays out of the picture'

“Those who take to the streets are seen. "There is no escaping cameras and drones."

On motorways, car parks and platforms. In supermarkets, entertainment areas, apartment portals, trams, buses and trains. Even the boys' toilet at a secondary school in Arnhem already had a camera hanging. Hidden in a speaker box. The school board did not want to visualise the emptying of the bladders, but it did want to put a stop to the vandalism in the toilet.

Minister Opstelten's (Justice and Security) drones also have a higher purpose: maintaining public order at major events. The unmanned camera-equipped planes are really not going to just spy on citizens from the air, the ministry nuances Big Brother-like associations surrounding the bill to expand camera surveillance options.

Those who do not want to be in the picture can hardly walk the streets, argues Vincent Böhre, legal expert at the foundation Privacy First. "If people want to make their entire private lives public via Facebook or Twitter, that is their own choice. But there is no escaping those cameras and drones. You feel like you are constantly being spied on. With fixed cameras it is still made known that they are there, with those drones you don't even know if they are flying above you."

In rural areas, Tilburg professor of technology regulation Bert-Jaap Koops still sees opportunities to stay out of the picture. "In the city, it already becomes a lot more difficult." Advancing technology makes the opportunities to keep tabs on each other bigger and bigger, Koops acknowledges. "But not everything that is technically possible should be," he insists, like Böhre, on the anvil of privacy protection.
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Koops calls for a robust debate on what we, citizens, do and do not wish to accept. "It is too easy to think that a good citizen has nothing to fear. The police also make mistakes. You can also accidentally end up in the wrong database."

Crucially, camera images should also be used only for the purpose for which they are taken. Koops returns to the car park mentioned earlier. "Camera surveillance is meant to prevent and tackle car break-ins. Then you shouldn't give those images to the tax authorities so they can check whether leased cars are also parked there. In practice, this is too often ignored."

That view is also Privacy First opined. Lawyer Böhre: "The government and the investigative agencies are now playing the game in such a way that they are pushing the boundaries and waiting to be called back."

Source: Noordhollands Dagblad, Gooi- en Eemlander, Limburgs Dagblad, Dagblad De Limburger, BN/DeStem, Leidsch Dagblad, IJmuider Courant, Haarlems Dagblad, Eindhovens Dagblad, Twentsche Courant Tubantia, De Stentor, Zwolse Courant, Veluws Dagblad, Zutphen Dagblad, Sallands Dagblad, Nieuw Kamper Dagblad, Gelders Dagblad, De Gelderlander, Dagblad Flevoland, Deventer Dagblad, Brabants Dagblad, Apeldoornse Courant, Provinciale Zeeuwse Courant, 22 August 2013.