Metro, 16 June 2015: 'Anger over spying via chip in license plate'

“The police want to 'chip' the vehicle of all motorists. Privacy First Foundation calls this an electronic ankle bracelet.

The Privacy First foundation wants the National Police to abandon 'spy chips' in car license plates. The police want to introduce so-called RFID chips, which can detect license plate fraud.

According to the police, 40,000 number plates are forged every year, allowing perpetrators to commit (traffic) crimes undisturbed. A remotely readable chip, mandatory for every motorist and continuously read on public roads, would be the solution against this.

However, Privacy First sees a great danger in rigging up a nationwide monitoring system to track the movements in public spaces of all Dutch citizens. We find the mandatory spy chip disproportionate and not fitting in a decent democratic constitutional state , says chairman Bas Filippini.

Enquiries by Privacy First reveal that the license plate chip is part of a much larger plan to equip all roads in the Netherlands with portals with measuring devices. These portals will record all cars and thus the movements of all citizens in public spaces 24 hours a day."

Source: Metro 16 June 2015, p. 7. Also published in fuller form (including online poll) at http://www.metronieuws.nl/binnenland/2015/06/spioneren-via-chip-in-kenteken-wekt-woede.