Rapport Commissie Brouwer: 'Gewoon doen' - Ngfg

Societal developments and the day-to-day work within which law enforcers and social
workers have to make judgements about security and privacy. These judgements have
become more complex. That is due to the demand for a risk-free society, new technological
possibilities, the intertwining of private and public aims and funding, as well as international
pressure in connection with fighting terrorism and organised crime. Citizens are finding it
increasingly difficult to exercise oversight of what is done with personal data.
If anything has changed fundamentally in the field of information in the security field over the
last ten years, it is the growth in the number of databases, the amount of information stored in
them and the possibilities for searching those databases and sharing them with other
organisations. Now that government policy is focusing on precautionary and preventive
measures, new cooperative relationships are coming into existence between local authorities,
police and the judicial authorities and parties who previously had involvement with security
policy (network society).
Besides the advice about supervision and about being more specific, the Commission does not
come to a recommendation to make wholesale changes to the legislation. The priority is to
embed key concepts for careful handling of personal data into day-to-day work on or for the
purpose of security, such as ‘goal-linking’, ‘transparency and predictability’ and ‘subsidiarity
and proportionality’. Therefore, it is necessary to facilitate the making of judgements in
concrete cases, in a way that matches the interests at stake, and which is appropriate for the
responsibilities and the work of the professionals making those judgements. For this reason
too, it is best to devote more attention to responsibility for and compliance with the duty of
care in handling personal data when working on security. This can concern all kinds of
situations. It may concern a teacher who notices that one of his pupils frequently has bruises.
Or an airline which wants to be able to serve a Halal meal without those passengers having to
worry about being considered as potential terrorists. Or a mayor who releases or withholds
the address of a convicted paedophile. Or maintaining a number plate registration system or
not. Or about the desirability of introducing national electronic patient records.
PRESENTATION
The reference framework consists of 6 principles that are explained below.
1. ‘Transparency, unless ...’’
Wherever handling personal data has become more complex and citizens are more and
more dependant on the use made of their data, transparency is crucial. The principle
4