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NETHERLANDS: Privacy and data banks (1)

01 January 1991

NETHERLANDS: Privacy and data banks
artdoc Feb=1996

The Registration Chamber, the official body for data protection
in the Netherlands, has issued a warning saying that the privacy
of citizens is seriously endangered by the explosive growth of
data banks. Data on an average individual are stored in no less
than four hundred government and commercial databases. Banks,
companies and public bodies have attempted to increase the
protection of data held on their computers but the Registration
Chamber favours the introduction of a new þPrivacy Enhancing
Technologyþ (PET) developed by the Digicash corporation in
Amsterdam. This allows for personal data to be stored in an
encrypted, anonymous way. In a report issued together with the
Dutch TNO research centre and the Information and Privacy
Commissioner of Ontario, Canada, the Registration Chamber sets
out the possibilities of the new technology. Its chairman Peter
Hustinx said: þIt will cost about 200 million guilders a year to
introduce this new technology throughout the country. But at the
same time it will allow institutions to spend less on security
measures.þ In his opinion, the current situation of widespread
and detailed registrations is in violation of the European
privacy guidelines issued in July 1995. þThe Chamber will
eventually take measures against companies that continue to work
in the traditional way,þ he says. The report shows that it is
feasible to develop a þdigital maskþ that protects for example
the customer paying with a credit card against being registered
in a number of commercial databases used for direct marketing
purposes.
It remains to be seen whether the powerful consumer products
industry will surrender its most useful marketing instrument
without a fight. Over the last two years, a giant campaign around
the þAir Milesþ concept (collect air miles with each purchase by
identifying yourself with a card) has allowed them to collect
massive amounts of data on the purchasing behaviour of individual
customers, thus creating an invaluable marketing tool.