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Is there a future for the anonymous blue parking disc?

Article
Surveillance
18 July, 2025

Mr Gilles Ampt's appeal against the Personal Data Authority is due to be heard at the Council of State on 28 July. The reason is the fact that the municipality of Wageningen introduced ticketing parking in early 2020 to allow free parking for a maximum of one hour in part of the city centre. Enquiries with the municipality revealed that the common blue parking disc is not accepted. License plate registration has thus been made mandatory without offering an anonymous alternative. The uniqueness of the case is that this is not paid parking but free parking.

Six years of litigation

As a resident of the municipality of Wageningen, Mr Ampt involved the Personal Data Authority (AP) because, as a certified privacy professional, he questioned the lawfulness of the municipality's processing of personal data in accordance with the AVG. In successive proceedings, this did not lead to the result he desired. Mr Ampt's case is supported by Privacy First.

Protection of citizens' interests

The stakes of the case have grown larger than just this municipality and only license plate parking and the acceptance of the blue parking disc because of the case law accumulated so far. This case also involves the obligation for the controller (municipality) to have a privacy impact assessment carried out and to include reasonable anonymous alternatives to processing in its implementation policy. All this has been lacking and has not been enforced by the AP.

Above all, this is about how the AP carries out its supervisory task. In Mr Ampt's view, the AP is making far too easy work of this. This is a flaw in the adequate protection of citizens' interests where the government processes personal data.