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Netherlands: Privacy laws criticised

01 January 1997

A confidential investigation by the Registratiekamer (Registration Chamber, the official watchdog authority monitoring privacy issues) was leaked to the press in late January. In the report, the Registratiekamer accuses the so-called business information bureaus of severe violations of privacy laws. Dozens of "shady" bureaux who often work in cooperation with private detective agencies and insurance companies to collect personal information on individuals who are in debt. They approach neighbours, employers and family members to obtain sensitive information on eg: divorce situations, gambling debts, physical and psychological problems and judicial matters, and they resort to technical means such as telephoto lenses to collect information on people's behaviour, the interior of their homes. Also, in many cases institutions such as the tax service, the welfare office, telecommunications and utilities companies and housing societies provide them with confidential information to which they are not entitled. The report gives examples of citizens whose intimate private lives were investigated by these bureaus in cases involving a possible insurance scam of only a few hundred guilders. A man suspected of having reported a car radio as stolen to claim insurance money had his entire neighbourhood and family members questioned about his divorce and psychological problems; his living room was photographed with a telelens to find out if the radio could be spotted.