Machine translations by Deepl

Senate motion guarantees privacy in new legislation

On Tuesday 24 May, the Senate passed a important motion affirming and strengthening a number of privacy guarantees in new legislation. The motion passed overwhelmingly (only the VVD voted against). A week earlier (during the Parliamentary debate on digital data processing), the motion had been tabled by senator Hans Franken (CDA) and even minister Donner and state secretary Teeven had let it be known that "there are all things in it that we can quite live with." Although the motion is not formally legally binding, its content is partly so and it also carries great political weight. The entire motion reads as follows:

MOTION BY MEMBER FRANKEN ET AL.

Presented 17 May 2011

The Chamber,

having heard the deliberations,

whereas the fundamental right to privacy is of great importance in our democratic state governed by the rule of law,

whereas there are trends to expand and strengthen possible restrictions on this fundamental right in new legislation,

whereas, furthermore, when creating new legislation, explicit consideration must be given to the question whether the restrictions on the fundamental right to privacy are justified,

whereas, in order to answer this question following the treaty obligation, the following criteria must be assessed:

  • 1. The necessity, effectiveness and manageability of the measure,

  • 2. Proportionality: the intrusion should not be greater than strictly necessary,

  • 3. The results of a Privacy Impact Assessment, so that the risks posed by the measure have been examined in advance,

  • 4. The possibility of effective monitoring and control of the implementation of the measure, to be achieved through, inter alia, audits by the independent monitor,

  • 5. Limiting the period of validity by a sunset clause or at least a review clause,

asks the government, in the case of legislative proposals involving a restriction on the fundamental right to privacy, to include the above criteria in the consideration and decision-making process and to report on this in the explanatory memorandum to the relevant legislative proposal,

and moves on to the order of business.

Signatories:

Franks (CDA)

Tan (Labour Party)

Strik (GroenLinks)

Holdijk (SGP)

Slagter-Roukema (SP)

Steel (D66)