The Collaborative Data Processing Act won a majority in the Senate Tuesday afternoon. The law regulates that agencies can share and analyze more data of citizens. This should make it easier to combat fraud, but opponents fear a new benefits scandal and call it a "Big Brother law.
The new law allows agencies to share and analyze a wide range of data, including financial and criminal information and data from municipal systems.
This would allow them to better fight tax and social fraud, but at the same time, the law is under discussion because of allegedly far-reaching powers given to government agencies and private parties.
On Thursday, the Senate voted on the bill. The BBB, SGP, D66, CDA, PVV, VVD, Ja21, 50PLUS, OPNL and one senator from the GroenLinks-PvdA group voted in favor. The BBB was the deciding factor. The other parties had previously spoken clearly on the bill, but the BBB left in the middle how it leaned. With the party's 16 seats, the bill ultimately received a majority of 51 in favor.
The BBB does not think the law is perfect, Senator Arie Griffoen made clear. "The BBB has a mixed view on the present law. In the group's assessment, precisely this law, which affects the fundamental rights of citizens, should safeguard all facets of due diligence and be complete at the outset. In the opinion of the BBB group, this is not yet the case," he said in a statement of vote.
But the purpose of the law and guarantees given earlier by responsible Minister Dilan Yeşilgöz of Justice and Security won over the BBB anyway. Griffioen: "It is the urgent need to deal with crime and the minister's assurance that there will be a careful introduction test that makes the BBB group decide to vote for this law after all."
D66 shared similar considerations. Promises of mid-term reviews of the law and assessments by independent experts of how agencies share data make the party support the law.
The other explanations of vote were significantly more negative. "The minister, although she has been asked about it several times, cannot guarantee that there will not be another kind of allowance affair if this law comes to fruition. That is a horrible picture," said PvdD Senator Peter Nicolaï, for example. Volt Senator Gaby Perin-Gopie stated, "The law erodes the presumption of innocence."
Volt filed a motion with the law requesting that "the cooperatives be actively alerted to effective anti-discrimination measures and training, to prevent the implementation of the law from leading to unequal treatment and discrimination." This motion did not gain a majority.
Civil society organizations frequently expressed concerns in the run-up to their vote. The Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens fears "mass surveillance," said chairman Aleid Wolfsen. The SyRI Coalition, which consists of Platform Burgerrechten, FNV, Privacy First and Stichting KDVP, was also outspokenly critical. The law is a "Big Brother law," the coalition said. "This law enables working methods that are dangerous and uncontrollable for citizens," warned Tijmen Wisman, chairman of the Civil Rights Platform, in a press release.
