Various regional dailies, 8 May 2015: 'Debit card not mandatory for parking'

"For the sake of privacy, it should be possible to pay cash at parking meters. If parking operator Cition will not convert the parking meters, the Privacy First foundation will file a lawsuit.

Since the summer of 2013, digital parking has been introduced in Amsterdam, requiring motorists to enter their license plate number in the parking machine. At the same time, the option of paying in cash was discontinued.

Earlier, president Bas Filippini of the interest group successfully filed a lawsuit against Cition for the mandatory introduction of the license plate at the parking meter. According to Privacy First, this gave the municipality unwanted access to the location where the parker parks his car. The court ruled in favour of Privacy First and ruled that the fine imposed on Filippini should be shredded. Because the payment receipt from the vending machine, without entering the license plate number, could indeed prove that parking had been paid for.

Now Privacy First opposes the mandatory debit card payment. Even if someone refuses to enter their license plate number due to privacy concerns, they can still be identified through the bank transaction, Filippini said. The right to anonymity in public spaces also includes the right to anonymous payment.

He also stressed that cash is still legal tender in the Netherlands. The government is increasingly criminalising cash, Filippini argues.

Today the letter of objection plops on the mat at Cition. Any obligation to pay purely electronically (and thus personally identifiable) violates this right for lack of necessity, proportionality and subsidiarity, Filippini writes in it. "Nor can any efficiency or cost savings justify such an invasion of my privacy. Therefore, as long as my anonymity cannot be guaranteed, I cannot be required to pay electronically when parking.""

Source: Gooi- en Eemlander, Haarlems Dagblad, IJmuider Courant, Leidsch Dagblad & Noordhollands Dagblad, 8 May 2015.